Introduction
Good to Talk?
Codifying `Communication'
Knowledge, Authority and Standards
Talk as Enterprise
Communication and Culture Change at Work
Communication Factories
Inside the Call Centre
Schooling Spoken Discourse
Communication and the Pursuit of Happiness

It's good to talk is one of the great clich[ac]es of our time. The benefits of talk to individuals, families and organizations are proclaimed by pop psychologists, television talk show hosts, and management gurus. The importance of talk is talked about endlessly.

`Good to Talk? is an attempt to look critically at what lies behind this upsurge of concern about talk in our workplaces, classrooms and private lives, and it places these developments in historical context and relates their forms to the broader economic and social changes associated with globalization.

The book also poses questions about the social and political implications of talking about talking. Is `communication' the key to solving the problems of modern life? Are the lessons in talking that are offered to us now the ones we most urgently need to learn? Is it time to challenge the prevailing belief about what makes it good to talk?