Benjamin Barber, "Time, Work, and Leisure in a Civil Society," and:

• Peter Drucker, "The Age of Social Transformation"
• Lani Guinier, "Second Proms and Second Primaries"
• Jon Krakauer, "Selections from Into the Wild" and Peter Drucker, "The Age of Social Transformation"

Barber and Drucker: Mobility and Civil Society.

By definition, a knowledge society is a society of mobility. And all the social functions of the old communities, whether performed well or poorly (and most were performed very poorly indeed), presupposed that the individual and the family would stay put. But the essence of a knowledge society is mobility in terms of where one lives, mobility in terms of what one does, mobility in terms of one's affiliations (Drucker).

Both Peter Drucker and Benjamin Barber are concerned with the changes that society has undergone in the twentieth century and with what future societies will look like. Are Drucker's views about the knowledge worker and the social sector compatible with Barber's views about civil society? That is, can a mobile society be civil in the ways that Barber imagines? Or, to put the question another way, do knowledge workers have a role to play in Barber's civil society? If so, what is that role?

For this assignment, I would like you to write a paper where you explore the relationship between Drucker's knowledge society and Barber's civil society. In putting together your meditation on the relationship between mobility and civility, please make certain to refer directly to Drucker's essay at least two times and to Barber's essay at least two times. (Your own essay, in other words, will have a minimum of four citations in it.)

Richard E. Miller, Spring 2000

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Defining Democracy: Barber and Guinier

"A homogenous legislature in a heterogeneous society is simply not legitimate." Both Lani Guinier and Ben Barber describe democracy as a system that is in crisis. What changes would need to take place to establish a democratic system that would be recognized as both legitimate and successful by these two authors?

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Krakauer, Barber, and Drucker: Spiritual Work in the Knowledge Society

As we have seen, both Peter Drucker and Benjamin Barber are concerned with the appropriate role of education in the contemporary world. Drucker emphasizes the importance of the "formal knowledge" that one learns in schools . Barber, for his part, argues that while formal classroom learning is important, curricula should also include community service programs in order to teach social responsibility and citizenship.

For this paper, I would like you to write on the following question: What do you think Chris McCandless' attitude would be towards Barber's and/or Drucker's thoughts on education? McCandless referred to his own Alaskan adventure as a "spiritual pilgrimage." What do you think McCandless was trying to learn through his "strange spiritual quest"? Do you think he learned something valuable about life that is difficult, or even impossible, to learn in Drucker's "knowledge society" or Barber's "civil society"?

Brian Danoff, Fall 2000

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