Purpose: The aim of our paper is to analyze the role of mindfulness in organizational socialization, particularly how these techniques are mobilized by corporations to reshape employees’ subjectivities. Design/Methodology/Approach: Mindfulness is a process of awareness to moment-to-moment experience, allowing subjects to deal with emotions, sensations and thoughts in a non-judgmental way (Kabat–Zinn, 1991). Mindfulness has been characterized as the new opiate of the masses (Dawson and Turnbull, 2006) and the flagship technology of the self of neoliberal capitalism (Zizek, 2005), adjusting individuals “to the very conditions that cause their problems” (Purser, 2019, p.5). Over the past decade, several mindfulness interventions, such as MBSR (Mindfulness-based-stress reduction), have been implemented in corporate settings, aiming to improve employees’ resilience, flexibility, well-being and self-control. Recognizing that neoliberal selfhood requires individuals to rely on self-regulation devices to enhance their health and happiness, mindfulness interventions are emblematic examples of organizational socialization, as workers should undergo a set of performances to control, manage and regulate their affective states, thus increasing their productivity. By the “dark side of mindfulness”, we refer to the ways in which these practices are promoted, disseminated and applied to reconfigure workers’ subjectivities, leading to new articulations of neoliberal governmentalities coupling technologies of the self, affect and efficiency. Mindfulness becomes a disciplinary tool of self-control that aims at maximizing productivity through the moment-to-moment management of affect. Our paper draws on a qualitative methodology, including the thematic analysis of 44 papers published in the Harvard Business Review, and the examination of a specific mindfulness program carried out by the big tech corporation Amazon, which generated controversy. Findings: Our empirical findings are organized around four main themes: corporate mindfulness as an expansion of neoliberal selfhood; mindfulness and the ability to turn inner work into a driver of productivity; corporate mindfulness as an epiphenomenon of late capitalism; mindfulness as a technofix. Research Limitations: Our paper relies on a relatively limited data set, and by extending our research into a wider range of journals it would have been possible to identify alternative themes. Moreover, our theoretical framework (stemming from the neoliberal critique) may overshadow relevant phenomenological and embodied aspects. Theoretical and practical implications: This paper contributes to scholarship within Social Studies of Mindfulness and Organization Studies, unpacking the contemporary articulations of mindfulness, neoliberalism, affect and governmentality.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the work with/for/about older people being undertaken by museums during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, thinking of museums as caregivers. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews the responses from museums which work with older adults, in times of pandemic. It reviews how museums have addressed older people during the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK and Portugal. Two Portuguese maritime museums which have older adults as strategic audiences are selected and their Facebook webpage during the lockdown is analyzed. Findings Museums were committed to delivering online the work they have been doing offline, not without limitations. The digital turn in times of pandemic draw attention to inequalities regarding visitors who has access and literacy to engage with the digital museum as well as museums themselves. Unlike in the UK, in the two maritime museums, there were no specific programmes targeting older people – except for COVID-19 messages. However, older adults are presented online as active and as experts on maritime issues, representing empowering versions of ageing, either online or offline. Originality/value This paper reviewed and illustrated with empirical examples from the UK and Portugal how museums are addressing older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the wider debate on the role of arts, culture and cultural heritage for the well-being of older adults.
This article discusses the role of rock musicking as a medium for family relationships. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with women who self-identify as rock music lovers, it analyses intergenerational rock musicking processes and informal learning. Music, together with other activities, aesthetic materials, technologies and narratives, is an essential element in family relationships and part of the parenting cultural toolkit, both for fathers, as the daughters remember and describe them, and for the mothers themselves. For women rock fans who become mothers, rock music articulates more empowering versions of maternal subjectivities, and specific settings-such as car journeys-can constitute "music asylums". Taking two dyadic family relationships (father-daughter; mother-children), I argue that family and domestic spaces are relevant when analyzing everyday rock musicking.
A ndreia C. Coutinho is a museum educator and illustrator. She has a BA in Fine Arts from FBAUL (2009) and a Communication Design: Illustration MA from Kingston University London (2015). Coutinho has worked in museums since 2010, both in Portugal and in the UK; she is also a co-creator of Colectivo FACA, a curatorial activism collective based in Lisbon. L aura Tecedeiro Sequeira Falé holds an MA degree in Political Philosophy (2015). She is a queer activist and educator and a co-creator of Colectivo FACA. Falé is a graduate student in Management and Finance at ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon.M aribel Mendes Sobreira is an architect with an MA in Philosophy from the University of Lisbon (2016); she is currently a PhD student at the University of Lisbon in the field of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art. Sobreira is also a research member of the Centre of Philosophy at the University. She was a cultural mediator both at the Cultural Centre of Belém and at the Berardo Collection Museum in Lisbon. She is a co-creator of Colectivo FACA.
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