OU men - Patricia W. Lunneborg

'This book,' Patricia Lunneborg writes, 'documents a brilliant way out, for fifteen individuals, of this Age of Uncertainty for men.' This way out is the Open University. OU Men studies and documents the way that this remarkable institution has affected, indeed empowered, the lives of fifteen working men who hail from Manchester, Preston, and the East End, but also from Iran, India, Uganda, Ghana and Jamaica. Lawry Rhodes studied Law at Nottingham University, but failed his second year examinations. He became a building society manager, but found that his employers were more and more concerned with statistics and personal profit than with his interests or those of his customers. He began to learn with the Open University. Fearing for his job, 'morally disgruntled', but now with much study behind him, he quit. Today, with a B.A., Lawry Rhodes is a high school English teacher, and has published his poetry in a scholarly journal. He is one of the men who here narrate their lives up to and through the experience of further education at the Open University. The backdrop is the rapid and ruthless development in the world of work, especially the male world of work, in the second half of the twentieth century. Through the interviews recorded here, these men explain what education with the Open University has made possible for them in their different environments, how it has affected not only their attitudes to work and their job prospects, but also their relationships and often their values. From this candid interview material, Dr Lunneborg develops a wide-ranging analysis of the relationships between employment, education and personal life in contemporary Britain. Drawing upon the work of Charles Handy, Jeremy Rifkin and Will Hutton, she analyses the phenomena of downsizing, job-dissatisfaction, presenteeism (the compulsion to work absurdly long hours) and the threat of obsolescence, drawing out a cautiously optimistic prognosis. Education alone can develop the portable skills portfolio that forms the basis for a lifelong and manageable working life. Yet no less important, the author urges, is the willingness to detach male identities from paid employment, and to learn to bend our increased flexibility to the needs and opportunities of community service. OU Men will interest the ever increasing number of people involved in or considering an OU course, or any other distance learning programme. It will also be of value to those involved in the teaching and psychology of distance learning, and to anyone concerned with the anatomy of contemporary Britain and the ongoing changes in the world labour market.'An inspiring and powerful book... the stories of these OU men pack a tremendous punch of optimism and hope... These inspiring stories contain some wonderful vignettes of modern life.'From the Foreword by Sir John Daniel, Vice Chancellor of The Open University.