Vital Minimum
Regular price
€47.99
20th century
A01=Dana Simmons
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
amateur
Author_Dana Simmons
automatic-update
basics
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JPQB
Category=KCF
class
classism
contemporary
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
economics
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
equality
europe
european
france
french
human
inequality
labor
Language_English
modern
nature
needs
order
organization
PA=Available
political
politics
Price_€20 to €50
professional
PS=Active
rations
recycling
reform
reproduction
scarcity
science
scientific
self actualization
social studies
socialism
softlaunch
structure
subsistence
wages
welfare
western
Product details
- ISBN 9780226251561
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 13 Jul 2015
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
Secure
checkout
Fast Shipping
Easy returns
What constitutes a need? Who gets to decide what people do or do not need? In modern France, scientists, both amateur and professional, were engaged in defining and measuring human needs. These scientists did not trust in a providential economy to distribute the fruits of labor and uphold the social order. Rather, they believed that social organization should be actively directed according to scientific principles. They grounded their study of human needs on quantifiable foundations: agricultural and physiological experiments, demographic studies, and statistics. The result was the concept of the "vital minimum"- the living wage, a measure of physical and social needs. In this book, Dana Simmons traces the history of this concept, revealing the intersections between technologies of measurement, such as calorimeters and social surveys, and technologies of wages and welfare, such as minimum wages, poor aid, and welfare programs. In looking at how we define and measure need, Vital Minimum raises profound questions about the authority of nature and the nature of inequality.
Dana Simmons is associate professor of history at the University of California, Riverside.
