Life Advice from Below: The Public Role of Self-Help Coaches in Germany and China

Description

In Life Advice from Below, Eric C. Hendriks offers the first systematic, comparative study of the globalization of American-style self-help culture and the cultural conflicts this creates in different national contexts. The self-help guru is an archetypical American figure associated with individualism, materialism and the American Dream. Nonetheless, the self-help industry is spreading globally, thriving in China and other seemingly unlikely places. Controversy follows in its wake, as the self-help industry, operating outside of formal education and state institutions, outflanks philosophical, religious and political elites who have their own visions of the Good Life. Through a comparison of Germany and China, Hendriks analyzes how the competition between self-help gurus and institutional authorities unfolds under radically different politico-cultural regimes. Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Cultural Fields in the Public Sphere Chapter 3 The Persistence of National Regimes Chapter 4 Global Popular Culture and Self Help Chapter 5 Lines of Conflict Chapter 6 Mapping and Comparing Social Space Chapter 7 The German Self Help Field Chapter 8 Clashing into Germanys Corporatist Welfare Regime Chapter 9 The Chinese SelfHelp Field Chapter 10 Coexisting with Chinas Institutional Authorities Chapter 11 Conclusion