Employing the CEO of Me, Inc.: US corporate hiring in a neoliberal age

ABSTRACT Social practices and contingencies always exceed the neoliberal models by which people currently try to contain the inherent unpredictability of accomplishing social tasks with others, such as getting a job. Contradictions in neoliberal logics emerge when people try to live according to neo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American ethnologist 2018-05, Vol.45 (2), p.173-185
Main Author: GERSHON, ILANA
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alliances
Business
Candidates
Contingencies
employment
Hiring
job advice
neoliberal subjectivity
Neoliberalism
United States
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT Social practices and contingencies always exceed the neoliberal models by which people currently try to contain the inherent unpredictability of accomplishing social tasks with others, such as getting a job. Contradictions in neoliberal logics emerge when people try to live according to neoliberal precepts, engaging with other social entities as though all are corporate persons and all alliances are, metaphorically speaking, business‐to‐business alliances. Moments in US corporate hiring challenge scholarly critiques of neoliberal logics that have made neoliberalism seem too reductive and too prescriptive. At such moments, Americans find that one neoliberal principle is incompatible in practice with a different neoliberal principle—as when, for example, being a flexible worker is antithetical to being a legible job candidate.
ISSN:0094-0496
1548-1425
DOI:10.1111/amet.12630