Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
FREE Delivery in the UK on orders with at least £10 of books.
Usually dispatched within 2 to 3 weeks.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
No Contest: Case Against ... has been added to your Basket
Dispatch to:
France - Mainland
To see addresses, please
Or
Please enter a valid UK postcode.
Or
+ £2.80 UK delivery
Used: Good | Details
Sold by betterworldbooks
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: Dispatched from the US -- Expect delivery in 2-3 weeks. Former Library books. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!

Have one to sell?
Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

No Contest: Case Against Competition Paperback – 1 Jan 1993

by
Alfie Kohn (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Alfie Kohn Page
search results for this author
Alfie Kohn (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 8 customer reviews
See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price
New from Used from
Kindle Edition
"Please retry"
£6.64
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
£28.87 £2.95
Paperback
"Please retry"
£6.99
£6.99 £1.25
This item can be delivered to your selected dispatch location in France - Mainland. Details
Note: This item is eligible for click and collect. Details
Pick up your parcel at a time and place that suits you.
  • Choose from over 13,000 locations across the UK
  • Prime members get unlimited deliveries at no additional cost
How to order to an Amazon Pickup Location?
  1. Find your preferred location and add it to your address book
  2. Dispatch to this address when you check out
Learn more
£6.99 FREE Delivery in the UK on orders with at least £10 of books. Usually dispatched within 2 to 3 weeks. Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)

Frequently Bought Together

  • No Contest: Case Against Competition
  • +
  • Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise and Other Bribes
  • +
  • Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason
Total price: £30.97
Some of these items are dispatched sooner than the others. Show details
Buy the selected items together

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.

Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Trade); 2nd Revised edition edition (1 Jan. 1993)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0395631254
  • ISBN-13: 978-0395631256
  • Product Dimensions: 14 x 1.9 x 21 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 65,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

  • See Complete Table of Contents

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)

Product Description

About the Author

Alfie Kohn's six previous books include Punished by Rewards and No Contest: The Case Against Competition, as well as Beyond Displine and What to Look for in a Classroom. Descrilbed by Time magazine last year as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of educational fixation on grades and test scores," he is a popular lecturer, speaker to teachers, parents, and reasearchers accross the country. The author currently resides in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars
5 star
8
4 star
0
3 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
See all 8 customer reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA well written book and a fascinating argument
By Mark on 22 May 2009
Format: Paperback
I am amazed that only one previous review of this book has been posted, because it explores a fascinating subject in depth and makes a convincing argument with a wealth of supporting references.

Alfie states his argument clearly. He defines 'competition' as the pursuit of mutually exclusive goals, including 'structural' competition in situations where people can only win in opposition to others, and 'internal' competition which gives people a sense that they must outdo one another. In the first chapter he shows that this competition is not inevitable, including a forceful argument that competitive behaviour is not an unavoidable aspect of 'human nature'.

One of his key arguments is that competition is a learned behaviour. He argues that we can learn to cooperate rather than compete. He criticises competitive sport and dedicates one chapter to argue that cooperative activities can be more fun. He gives particular attention to competition in school education and uses one chapter to challenge the argument that competition is character building. He also challenges competition in the economy, politics, and even in the judicial system.

In some places the book specifically addresses the American (US) culture of competition in the early 1980s, but now the book is 25 years old and that culture has sadly been exported to much of the world. I found it totally relevant to current culture in the UK.

Finally, the first edition of this book was published in the early eighties, and the second edition merely adds an additional chapter, so it would be interesting to know how the research has developed since then. I would like to find some further reading, but very few people seem to have written about this fundamental issue.
1 Comment 15 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsThe case for mutual cooperation
By S P Mead TOP 500 REVIEWER on 26 Jun. 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is a well-written and highly interesting book concerned with demystifying the notion of 'competition' as either a natural or positive activity within society. The author, Alfie Kohn, makes a convincing argument regarding the largely negative - indeed, often horrific - consequences of competition. The central thesis is that for every 'winner' there are many 'losers' - and, as such, competition fails to serve the common good. Moreover, the vast majority of social situations need not involve competition - yet it is artificially inserted into our lives, because the illusion that it's a good (or inevitable) thing. For instance, the education of children need not - and should not - be about each child competing against the others to see who can gain the highest grades. Rather, each child should be educated in accordance with the age, aptitude and abilities - and success measured in terms of whether the child succeeds in that regard.

Through 'competition', society turns each of us into adversaries - and, as someone gains, others lose. This is not, for Kohn, an ethically justifiable model of social life. The aim, instead, ought to be how to achieve as much success as possible for as many people as possible. And while the ideology of competition claims that it does just that, the fact - for example - that millions live in poverty, or that so many fail at school, means that competition is not in the interests of most people. And so Kohn builds a case for an alternative model: cooperation. With each assisting and contribution to the collective good, ensuring that everyone succeeds, so each person is a 'winner' (and there are no 'losers'). Thus the book concludes that social life ought not to be arranged in terms of any 'contest' between individuals, but by way of mutual support.

This book is written with a popular readership intended. It clearly presents Kohn's case, and - in my view - builds a persuasive argument. I highly recommend it.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating Read
By Samantha on 7 Jun. 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This is a fascinating book, and this book is well researched and written. The argument against competition is well defined, and Alfie argues the case well. I started this book thinking that there was nothing wrong with competition, but ending up agreeing with many parts of this book.
Competition affects life more than I realised, and there are many instances where it is not positive. This is the sort of book that makes you re-think life and see it all in a different way.
Competition ultimately means my success means everyone else is a loser, and that all to often I am the loser. There is little in the way of practical advice in this book, and we do live in a competitive society. There are though some changes in life that we all can make, and every small change matters.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsWelcome Critique of something that is often a 'given'.
By Amazon Customer on 2 Sept. 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Very interesting
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Look for similar items by category

Feedback