"<em>The Myth of the Age of Entitlement</em> helps to puncture the invented entitled status that has been foisted onto millennials and provides an array of examples where millennials are bucking this myth, demanding their democratic entitlements, and telling the Margaret Wentes of the world to STFU (an acronym that Cairns also helpfully spells out on page 133)." - Nora Loreto, <em>Briarpatch Magazine</em>

We are said to be living in the age of entitlement. Scholars and pundits declare that millennials expect special treatment, do whatever they feel like, and think they deserve to have things handed to them. In The Myth of the Age of Entitlement, Cairns peels back the layers of the entitlement myth, exposing its faults and arguing that the majority of millennials are actually disentitled, facing bleak economic prospects and potential ecological disaster. Providing insights from millennials rarely profiled in the mainstream media, Cairns redefines entitlement as a fundamental concept for realizing economic and environmental justice.

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The Myth of the Age of Entitlement peels back the layers of the entitlement myth, exposing its anti-democratic faults and offering a more nuanced understanding of the millennial generation.

Acknowledgements

1. The Age of Entitlement?
2. Democratic and Oppressive Entitlements
3. Zeroed Down: The Flexible Millennial Worker
4. Austerity U: Teaching and Resisting Disentitlement on Campus
5. Millennial Blowout: Eco-disentitlement versus Ecological Justice
6. Everything for Everybody

Appendix: A Note on Methodology
Glossary
References
Index

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Cairns immediately grabs the reader, challenging prominent assumptions about the concept of entitlement and how it applies to millennials. [He presents] a counter-narrative that needs to become the new common sense.
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A deeply necessary intervention into the debate about the millennial generation. James Cairns explodes "the myth of the age of entitlement" and urges engagement with the demands of today's young radicals. Our futures may all depend on it. -- Sarah Jaffe, journalist and author of Necessary Trouble: Americans In Revolt James Cairns immediately grabs the reader, challenging prominent assumptions about the concept of entitlement and how it applies to millennials. He demonstrates that the myth of an entitled generation is more about an elite's effort to suppress the just and democratic demands of masses of people who see their hopes evaporating. Much like Ronald Reagan's focus on the supposed "welfare queens," the myth of an entitled generation aims to distract popular attention away from the theft of our savings, hopes, and futures by what has been termed the "1%." Cairns has presented a counter-narrative that needs to become the new common sense. -- Bill Fletcher, Jr., Former President of TransAfrica Forum, trade unionist, co-author of Solidarity Divided, and author of 'They're Bankrupting Us!' - And Twenty Other Myths about Unions
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Product details

ISBN
9781442636378
Published
2017
Publisher
University of Toronto Press; University of Toronto Press
Weight
330 gr
Height
229 mm
Width
152 mm
Thickness
13 mm
Age
U, P, 05, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Number of pages
208

Author

Biographical note

James Cairns is Associate Professor, Social and Environmental Justice, at Wilfrid Laurier University, Brantford. He is the author (with Alan Sears) of A Good Book, In Theory: Making Sense Through Inquiry (2015) and The Democratic Imagination: Envisioning Popular Power in the Twenty-First Century (2012).