The so-called New Economy, based on huge advances in information and communication technologies, economic globalization and neoliberalism, promised to expand economic opportunities and growth, provide stimulating and well-paid jobs, reduce inequalities and develop the Third World. But the experiences of the past two decades have hardly been positive for workers and their families. While there have been significant economic and workplace changes, these changes have not been the boon to working people that was predicted. In fact, as the authors of this book show, there is significant unemployment and underemployment, including for knowledge workers. Management strategies continue to be authoritarian, and work presents new dangers to our health. Meanwhile, social services have been ripped apart. “New Economy” is simply the name being given to current attempts to reboot a very old and exploitative economic system. However, there are signs a truly new economy is possible, as trade unions, working people and progressive social movements continue the struggle for social justice.

Wayne Antony is a publisher at Fernwood Publishing. He is also a founding member of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba (CCPA-MB) and has been on the board of directors since its inception in 1997. Prior to becoming involved with the CCPA-MB, he worked with the Winnipeg political activist organizations, The Socialist Education Centre and Thin Ice. Wayne also taught sociology at the University of Winnipeg for eighteen years. He is co-author of three reports on the state of public services in Manitoba (for CCAP-MB) and is co-editor (with Les Samuelson) of five editions of Power and Resistance: Critical Thinking about Canadian Social Issues, co-editor (with Dave Broad) of Citizens or Consumers? Social Policy in a Market Society and Capitalism Rebooted? Work and Welfare in the New Economy (both with Dave Broad), and co-editor (with Julie Guard) Bankruptcies and Bailouts.

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Dave Broad is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Social Studies at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan. He studies work and the labour market, and problems of world development and underdevelopment, and has published and presented widely on these subjects. His research includes analysis of the links between global economic restructuring and the casualization of labour, and related issues of poverty and social welfare

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