Acknowledgment ix
PART 1 Introduction
Chapter ONE: The Problem 3
PART 2 Th e Pursuit
Chapter TWO: Differentiation 15
Chapter THREE: I Win, Therefore I Am Right 35
Chapter FOUR: The Quest for Space 54
Chapter FIVE: Powers and Limitations 76
PART 3 Our Beliefs
Chapter SIX: Types of Winners and Losers 97
Chapter SEVEN: Process versus Outcomes 118
Chapter EIGHT: Injecting Value 138
Chapter NINE: Awareness and Competition 158
PART 4 Conclusion
Chapter TEN: Our Restlessness 181
Notes 213
References 221
Index 233

Why winning doesn't always lead to happiness
Most of us are taught from a young age to be winners and avoid being losers. But what does it mean to win or lose? And why do we care so much? Does winning make us happy? Winning undertakes an unprecedented investigation of winning and losing in American society, what we are really after as we struggle to win, our collective beliefs about winners and losers, and much more.
Francesco Duina argues that victory and loss are not endpoints or final destinations but gateways to something of immense importance to us: the affirmation of our place in the world. But Duina also shows that competition is unlikely to provide us with the answers we need. Winning and losing are artificial and logically flawed concepts that put us at odds with the world around us and, ultimately, ourselves. Duina explores the social and psychological effects of the language of competition in American culture.
Primarily concerned with our shared obsessions about winning and losing, Winning proposes a new mind-set for how we can pursue our dreams, and, in a more satisfying way, find our proper place in the world.

Francesco Duina is professor and head of sociology at the University of British Columbia and visiting professor in the Department of Business and Politics at the Copenhagen Business School. He is the author of The Social Construction of Free Trade (Princeton), Institutions and the Economy, and Harmonizing Europe.