Books about Distinctions from Amazon.com

No judgement of taste is innocent In a word, we are all snobs. Pierre Bourdieu brilliantly illuminates this situation of the middle class in the modern world. France's leading sociologist focusses here on the French bourgeoisie, its tastes and preferences. Distinction is at once a vast ethnography of contemporary France and a dissection of the bourgeois mind.

In the course of everyday life people constantly choose between what they find aesthetically pleasing and what they consider tacky, merely trendy, or ugly. Bourdicu bases his study on surveys that took into account the multitude of social factors that play a part in a Frenchperson's choice of clothing, furniture, leisure activities, dinner menus for guests, and many other matters of taste. What emerges from his analysis is that social snobbery is everywhere in the bourgeois world. The different aesthetic choices people make are all distinctions-that is, choices made in opposition to those made by other classes. Taste is not pure. Bourdieu finds a world of social meaning in the decision to order bouillabaisse, in our contemporary cult of thinness, in the "California sports" such as jogging and cross-country skiing. The social world, he argues, functions simultaneously as a system of power relations and as a symbolic system in which minute distinctions of taste become the basis for social judgement.

The topic of Bourdieu's book is a fascinating one: the strategies of social pretension are always curiously engaging. But the book is more than fascinating. It is a major contribution to current debates on the theory of culture and a challenge to the major theoretical schools in contemporary sociology.

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Michael Goldhaber, writing in Wired, said, "If there is nothing very special about your work, no matter how hard you apply yourself you won't get noticed and that increasingly means you won't get paid much either. In times past you could be obscure yet secure -- now that's much harder."

Again: the white collar job as now configured is doomed. Soon. ("Downsizing" in the nineties will look like small change.) So what's the trick? There's only one: distinction. Or as we call it, turning yourself into a brand . . . Brand You.

A brand is nothing more than a sign of distinction. Right? Nike. Starbucks. Martha Stewart. The point (again): that's not the way we've thought about white collar workers--ourselves--over the past century. The "bureaucrat" on the finance staff is de facto faceless, plugging away, passing papers.

But now, in our view, she is born again, transformed from bureaucrat to the new star. She works in a professional service firm and works on projects that she'll be able to brag about years from now.

I call her/him the New American Professional, CEO of Me Inc. (even if Me Inc. is currently on someone's payroll) and, of course, of Brand You.

Step #1 in the model was the organization . . .a department turned into PSF 1.0.  Step #2 is the individual . . .reborn as Brand You.

In 50 essential points, Tom Peters shows how to be committed to your craft, choose the right projects, how to improve networking, why you need to think fun is cool, and why it's important to piss some people off. He will enable you to turn yourself into an important and distinctive commodity. In short, he will show you how to turn yourself into . . . Brand You.


See also the other 50List titles in the Reinventing Work series by Tom Peters -- The Project50 and The Professional Service Firm50 -- for additional information on how to make an impact in the professional world. .
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Praise for Career Distinction

"Hands down, this book is the bible on branding for your career!"
-- Susan Britton Whitcomb, author of Job Search Magic

"As a professional resume writer and career coach, I have extolled the concept of personal branding for my clients for years. Now, for the first time ever, I have an outstanding resource to recommend--Career Distinction by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson. This book details the concept of personal branding in a magnificent and easy-to-digest presentation that is a must-buy for every serious job seeker."
-- Wendy S. Enelow, CCM, MRW, JCTC, CPRW Executive Director of the Career Masters Institute

"Arruda and Dixson are widely respected in the global career coaching community as gurus who not only teach but live the personal branding model, and their expertise and passion show through on every page of this practical, indispensable book. I highly recommend it to all who want to distinguish themselves from the competition."
-- L. Michelle Tullier, PhD, Vice President of Right Management and author of The Unofficial Guide to Landing a Job.
Price: $11.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Edith Skinner, the foremost teacher of Good Speech for the stage in North America, taught at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and at the Juilliard School, where she was the first instructor recruited by John Houseman for the Drama Institute..
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The book is user-friendly

The approach is puppy-friendly!

Your puppy is so irresistible, cute, and lovable--until she chews your shoe, uproots your flowers, ruins your rug, demolishes your remote, or gobbles up your steaks.

Understanding your puppy's unique personality, breed-specific traits, and temperament will help you tailor and implement proper, positive training techniques to save your sanity and your puppy! PuppyPerfect explains how to develop a nurturing and mutually respectful relationship with your puppy, which is the key to getting her to behave properly. You'll get information on supplies you need for a puppy, proper feeding, healthcare, and more. You'll learn about puppy psychology, personality, breed differences, and training tools. You'll discover how to make training your puppy more effective and more enjoyable, with:
* Six puppy personality profiles, plus a quiz to help you determine where your puppy fits
* Step-by-step lessons for puppies at various ages and stages
* Information on clicker training, targeting, and point training
* Suggestions and games for positive play training
* Doglish 101 to help you decipher your puppy's bark and body language
* Techniques for dealing with specific bad behaviors, including jumping, digging, pulling on the leash, barking and aggression, stealing food, and more


Complete with more than fifty photos, stories from the author's teaching experiences, a Doglish glossary, and more, this must-read will help you turn your adorable, but far from perfect, puppy into a lovable friend for life..
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A positive agility training method that's fun for you and your dog

Designed expressly for dog owners who want the interactive thrill of agility sports without the rigid rules, pressures, and expenses of competition, Having Fun with Agility is a practical, down-to-earth guide to today's most popular canine sport.

The seasoned trainer and award-winning writer Margaret Bonham explains proven, positive methods--such as clicker training--that will help your dog perform the kinds of fabulous feats you see at competitions. Whether your pet's a Chihuahua or a Great Dane, a Basset Hound or a mixed breed, Having Fun with Agility will help you and your dog master the basics--and enjoy doing it..
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Forty years ago, North Carolina's Elon College was struggling to attract students and remain solvent Today Elon enrolls students from 46 states and 40 foreign countries. Since 1988, it has erected a new library, student center, football stadium, fitness center, and science facilities on its 500-acre campus. The number of applications has risen 40 percent since 1995, and SAT scores of incoming students have improved by 98 points. Elon has emerged as one of America's most desirable colleges.

How did this transformation happen? What can other colleges and universities learn from Elon's remarkable turnaround? Taking a new approach to the study of higher education, George Keller examines the decisions made by Elon's administration, trustees, and faculty to transform a school with a limited endowment into a top regional university. Using Elon as a case study, Keller sheds light on high-stakes competition among America's colleges and universities -- where losers face contraction or closure and winners gain money, talented students, and top faculty.

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