"By outlining the psychology of esteem and the way that that psychology can give rise to an economy, it shows how a variety of social patterns that are otherwise anomalous come to make a lot of sense within an economics of esteem. And it looks at ways the economy of esteem may be reshaped to improve overall social outcomes. While making connections with older patterns of social theorizing, it offers a new way of thinking about how society works and how it may be made to work. It puts the economy of esteem firmly on the agenda of economic and social science and of moral and political theory."--BOOK JACKET.