Neither use nor ornament
A cultural biography of clutter and procrastination
By Tracey Potts
Delivery Exc. North and South America
Delivery to North and South America
Click Here to Buy from Your Preferred BooksellerDelivery Exc. North and South America
Delivery to North and South America
Click Here to Buy from Your Preferred BooksellerBook Information
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 248
- Price: £85.00
- Published Date: July 2024
Description
Neither use nor ornament is a book about personal productivity, narrated from the perspective of its obstacles: clutter and procrastination. It offers a challenge to the self-help promise of a clutter-free life, lived in a permanent state of efficiency and flow.
The book reveals how contemporary projections of the good, productive life rely on images of failure. Riffing on the aphorism 'less is more' - a dominant refrain in present day productivity advice - it tells stories about streamlining, efficiency and tidiness over a time period of around 100 years.
By focusing on the shadows of productivity advice, Neither use nor ornament seeks to unravel the moral narratives that hold individuals to account for their inefficiencies and muddles.
Contents
Prologue
Introduction
1 Theorising the 'outside', aka, the social
2 'Less is more': European modernism and its 'zoos of agencies'
3 'More with less': form, function and American modernism
4 'The more of less': clutter, ecology and the new minimalism
5 'Be more with less': life hacking, procrastination and everyday rhythm
Conclusion
Index
Author
Tracey Potts is Assistant Professor of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies at the University of Nottingham
Related Books
Neither use nor ornament
By Tracey Potts
Or buy from your preferred bookseller:
