He is concerned with the struggle that all sorts of people now have tried to give meaning to lives tossed about in the latest wave of capitalist creative destruction . Sennett believes that in recent years, capitalism has been increasingly structured for short-term gain. This can be corrosive of both individual and social senses of purpose. He has sought to identify the effects on people s emotional and psychological well-being. Even in menial jobs, personal self-image depends on an idea of progressive achievement, of continuous development through a career .
People now talk about trying to get a life .
Formerly people s lives were based on loyalties, attachments, and acquired skills and understandings that made them feel important to others. Now personal and family lives are increasingly marked by instability of income and location, the rupture of attachments and learned work routines, the fragmentation of experience into dislocated episodes, the preoccupation with consumption, and the difficulty of understanding and coping with feelings of alienation. One can do Sennett s book an injustice by trying to summarise his themes in abstract terms. He writes more like a perceptive novelist than a social scientist. His explanations are embedded in the lives of real people and their families - how they have experienced and tried to cope with dislocation and uncertainty.