Living with people who differ - racially, ethnically, religiously or economically - is one of the most urgent challenges facing civil society. This book argues that co-operation needs more than good will: it is a craft that requires skill. It explores the nature of co-operation, why it has become weak and how it can be strengthened.

Richard Sennett was founder director of the New York Institute for the Humanities, and is now University Professor at New York University. He has previously won the Amalfi and Ebert prizes for sociology and in 2010 was awarded the Spinoza Prize for outstanding contributions to public debate on ethics and morality. Together forms part of a three-book project on 'homo faber, 'focusing on the skills human beings possess to make a life together;the first volume of this large project, The Craftsman, was published in 2008. He is the author of many celebrated books including The Fall of Public Man, Flesh and Stone and The Corrosion of Character.