“A snake’s coils are even more intricate than a mole’s burrow.” Individualization and Subjectification in Post-disciplinary Regimes of Work

Abstract

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How Can I Become a Responsible Subject? Towards a Practice-Based Ethics of Responsiveness

“…In doing this, he tried to understand and explore the ethics and ethical self-relations that individuals and groups of individuals develop in practice (see also O'Leary, 2002;Schmid, 2002;Weiskopf and Loacker, 2006). Foucault saw ethics and ethical self-relations as emerging while relating to discursively constituted norms.…”

Beyond bureaucracy and entrepreneurialism: Examining the multiple discursive codes informing the work, careers and subjectivities of management graduates

“…In 41 addition, the paper contributes conceptually to Foucault-inspired, discourse-analytic studies on subjectivities at work, especially those that emphasize the polyvalent 'nature' of discourse and, thereby, express that subjectivity is neither purely precarious nor selfdetermined (e.g., Thomas and Davies 2005;Whittle 2008). At last, the paper responds to calls for greater empirical granularity in Foucault-informed studies on shifting rationalities in the organization of work(ers) (Raffnsøe et al 2016), which often remain conceptual in orientation (e.g., Weiskopf and Loacker 2006;Weiskopf and Munro 2012). The exploration of the narratives of two cohorts of management graduates allowed us to empirically ground and illustrate how bureaucratic and entrepreneurial discursive codes and demands mutually inform each other.…”

“…Whereas normalization was the central target of power in the bureaucratic work and career regime, in this light, the central target of the post-bureaucratic regime tends to be the mobilization and 'enterprising up' of the subject (Weiskopf and Loacker 2006).…”

“…The working subject was basically considered as one production resource among otherss/he was deployed where her/his capacity promised the highest efficiency. In order to achieve this objective, employees were allocated to the production line or the office where they had to fulfill the tasks that blueprints assigned to them (Weiskopf and Loacker 2006). As objects of hierarchical surveillance they were, furthermore, continuously exposed to the 'gaze' of those in rational-legal authority (Weber 1978), i.e., those being, due to their organizational position, endued with the formal-legal power to assess, direct and control subjects, their conduct and performance (also Foucault 1994, 202;Sewell 2005).…”

“…These changes are generally related to a societal paradigm shift, which has been evaluated in different ways in career and management studies (Arthur and Rousseau 1996;Johnson et al 2009;Kanter 1997), sociology (Bauman 2000;Boltanski and Chiapello 2006;du Gay 2007), and work and organization studies (Courpasson and Reed 2004;McCabe 2009;Sturdy et al 2016;Weiskopf and Loacker 2006). Within both critical and mainstream management and organization studies (MOS), there are those who consider traditional forms of work and careers as stable and linear and new ones as flexibilized, mobilized and non-linear (e.g., Heckscher and Donnellon 1994;Kanter 1997).…”