Working Alternatives

Working Alternatives explores economic life from a humanistic and multidisciplinary perspective, with a particular eye on religions’ implications in practices of work, management, supply, production, remuneration, and exchange. Its contributors draw upon historical, ethical, business, and theological conversations considering the sources of economic sustainability and justice.

The essays in this book—from scholars of business, religious ethics, and history—offer readers practical understanding and analytical leverage over these pressing issues. Modern Catholic social teaching—a 125-year-old effort to apply Christian thinking about the implications of faith for social, political, and economic circumstances—provides the key springboard for these discussions.

Contributors: Gerald J. Beyer, Alison Collis Greene, Kathleen Holscher, Michael Naughton, Michael Pirson, Nicholas Rademacher, Vincent Stanley, Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar, Kirsten Swinth, Sandra Waddock

Introduction
John C. Seitz and Christine Firer Hinze | 1

PART I: SEEING DIFFERENTLY: ALTERNATIVE VISIONS OF ECONOMY AND WORK

The Care Economy as Alternative Economy
Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar | 21

An Integral Ecology as the Ground for Good Business:
Connecting Institutional Life in Light of Catholic Social Teachings
Michael Naughton | 45

Inaugurating a “Bold Cultural Revolution” through Prayer and Work
Nicholas Rademacher | 71

Generative Businesses Fostering Vitality:
Rethinking Businesses’ Relationship to the World
Sandra Waddock | 96

PART II: VALUING DIFFERENTLY: CHALLENGING WORK AND BUSINESS AS USUAL

The Homemaker as Worker: Second Wave American Feminist
Campaigns to Value Housework
Kirsten Swinth | 121

Curing the “Disease” in Corporatized Higher Education:
Prescriptions from the Catholic Social Tradition
Gerald J. Beyer | 148

Working Alternatives: From Capitalism to Humanistic Management?
Michael Pirson | 189

PART III: PRACTICING DIFFERENTLY: CREATING ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF WORKING

The “Dignity of Motherhood” Demands Something Different:
A Catholic Experiment in Reproductive Care in New Mexico
Kathleen Holscher | 225

Southern Christian Work Camps and a Cold War
Campaign for Racial and Economic Justice
Alison Collis Greene | 253

Meaningful Work in a Time of Crisis
Vincent Stanley | 280

List of Contributors | 305

Index | 309