Resisting Work: The Corporatization of Life and Its Discontents

by Peter Fleming

A job is no longer something we "do," but instead something we "are." As the boundaries between work and non-work have dissolved, we restructure ourselves and our lives using social ingenuity to get things done and be resourceful outside the official workday. 

 

In his provocative book, Resisting Work Peter Fleming insists that many jobs in the West are now regulated by a new matrix of power-biopower-where "life itself" is put to work through our ability to self-organize around formal rules. This neoliberal system of employment tries to absorb our life attributes--from our consumer tastes, "downtime," and sexuality--into employment so that questions of human capital and resources replace questions of employee, worker, and labor.  

 

Fleming then suggests that the corporation turns to communal life-what he calls "the common"-in order to reproduce itself and reinforce corporate culture.  Yet a resistance against this new definition of work is in effect, and Fleming shows how it may already be taking shape.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Economics

218 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Professor of Work, Organisation and Society at Queen Mary College.

Reviews

[Scott Goddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a critique of the paradigmatic shift into a Neoliberal world, honing in on how the glorified values of free-market fundamentalism affect the ordinary and seemingly ineluctable practice of work. Unlike in previous paradigms - namely Fordism - in which employers adopted a more supervisory role, able to identify contrarian and rouge work practices (that is, any that deviate from the imposed 'norm'), Neoliberalism has caused a fundamental change in this mode of thinking. Workforces of the West are exhibiting a general but far-reaching dissatisfaction and disaffection with work. Today, the protrusive demarcation between the spheres of work and non-work has disintegrated into nothingness; the result of which is an encroachment of work-related values and pressures into the leisurely arena. Employees are perversely encouraged to exude individuality and their personal traits and personality, insofar as emphasising sexuality, body piercing, and other idiosyncrasies. This modality of capitalism lulls the employee into a false sense of autonomy, acting as an independent agent; in actuality, however, they are being surreptitiously exploited without awareness. In such a hyperactive environment, employers no longer value the provision of training and other augmentative practices, and instead implicitly urge employees to take this responsibility upon themselves – often in their “leisure time”. What this achieves, in turn, is a constant and inflictive preoccupation with work, regardless of time, place, or situation.

The free-market would be rendered dysfunctional in a perfectly Neoliberal world (obviously quixotic in practice), and only remains afloat by extracting the social qualities of the larger population – qualities that are out normally resilient to corporatisation, to commodification. It expropriates these qualities as a blood-hungry parasitic would to its host. What essentialises this process is the function of “biopower”, as Fleming calls it. It is this continual process of humanisation of something that is, paradoxically, the antithesis of benignity and kindness, akin to homo economicus, which is the sustaining force of Neoliberalism.

Although the book was scholarly written, in an incisive and cogent prose, some of the terminology was overly technical at times. On several occasions I had to read a sentence up to five or six times, not always assimilating its intended meaning.

[MLDunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the vocabulary was, at times, above my understanding as someone outside the field, I found the historical background incredibly useful and Fleming guides the reader towards his main points throughout the book. Silence as a strategy may have needed more space for explanation and execution, but this book definitely left me questioning my own motives and entanglements for the rest of the year.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cool book which highlights certain aspects of neoliberalism that are not talked about so often. Not really sure about the post-representation segment - it seems like a useful approach to, let's say, identity politics, refusing to be coopted as yet another marketable niche, yet I remain uncertain silence really is the best way to rethink existing and imagine future power relations.