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Unlivable lives and resistance under neoliberal governance: a performative approach

Publication date: 2021-09-01

Author:

De Coster, Marjan
Verbruggen, Marijke ; Zanoni, Patrizia

Abstract:

The dissertation of Marjan De Coster ties into contemporary questions of precarization of the labour force and forms of resistance under neoliberal governance. More precisely, she draws on the work of Judith Butler to theorize through a performative lens how 1) unlivable lives are constituted under neoliberal governance, seeking to understand the mechanisms through which some become precarized, and 2) how resistance can(not) emerge, under what conditions can we theorize resistance? Her dissertation starts from the critical body of work on resistance in organization studies, which has moved beyond the power-resistance dichotomy. This body of work has come to understand and theorize resistance and power in a dialectic way, as intertwined, mutually implicative and coproductive. A form of resistance can therefore simultaneously be compliance at a different level. Numerous studies in this body of work have revealed the contradictions and struggles of subjectivities' adoption and/or transformation of the organizational discourses and practices that are at hand. Together this body of work shows how resistance it never straightforward nor an all-encompassing process (e.g. Van Laer & Janssens, 2017; Fleming, 2009; Putnam et al., 2005; Ashcraft, 2005) De Coster's dissertation inscribes itself in this body of work, but takes a performative approach to it by drawing on the work of Judith Butler who considers 'the Other' central in the constitution and becoming of oneself as subjectivity. For her, the subject does not act in a 'social vacuum' with the norm, but only becomes through her performance along the norm in the relation with the other who (does not) grant recognition to it. Hence, we are as subjects vulnerable because of our dependence on the recognition of the other in order to become. Therefore, we consistently perform ourselves along the normative frames in the relation with others, in order to make ourselves readable and to be recognized as viable human being. This ontologically specific understanding of the subject has, of course, implications for the way we can resist. As we cannot just resist in solitude in relation to the norm, but our very becoming in the relation with others might be at stake. This, as Butler argues, results in ethical violence in the very coming into being of ourselves. Overall, this implies that in drs. De Coster does not theorize power and resistance in a social vacuum, at the struggle of the subject in relation to the normative frames as such, as commonly done in organization studies. Rather, she looks at struggle of how these frames are imposed upon us in the relations with others and with which consequences for the very potential of resisting. Her dissertation contains three empirical papers, in which she examines the above on three different levels. 1) The first paper takes a micro level, looking at how a resisting and gendered subjectivity is performed in a neoliberal organization Published: De Coster & Zanoni (2018). Governing through accountability: Gendered moral selves and the (im)possibilities of resistance in the neoliberal university. Gender, Work and Organization, 1-19. DOI: doi:10.1111/gwao.12304 2) The second paper takes a meso level to how the neoliberal subjectivity is performed within a resisting organization RR (2nd round) in OS: De Coster & Zanoni. Reclaiming livable lives under neoliberalism: A study of the mobilizaiton of precarized subjects into a lasting political strife 3) The third paper takes a macro level, looking at how a resisting population is performed under neoliberal capitalism Currently writing: De Coster & Zanoni. "We are the 99%" Fostering solidarity among 'the people' within the scene of power Through these empirical papers, she is able to make a contribution to our understanding and theorization of the processes of precarization and resistance in organization studies.