Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Entrepreneurial Self

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Labour Power

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis ((LECTMORPH))

  • 161 Accesses

Abstract

In neoliberal societies labour-power pursues the career of the entrepreneurial self which is psychological, rather than professional. Subjects who have interiorised the rule of their own exploitation, i.e. capital, and replaced it with the principle of their own liberation, i.e. labour-power, are the expression of a condition that is divided between the desire to be integrated and subordination to command. In this process a space of becoming emerges. It is historically determined although it cannot yet be determined by the power that precedes and regulates the representation of human capital. The process of liberation, in fact, is never ending.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    S. Bologna, Knowledge workers. Dall’operaio massa al freelance.

  2. 2.

    See Rose [1]; Sloterdijk [2].

  3. 3.

    See Simone [3].

  4. 4.

    See M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics; Brökling [4].

  5. 5.

    See Gorz [5].

  6. 6.

    Magakian [6].

  7. 7.

    Clayton [7].

  8. 8.

    See Lacan [8].

  9. 9.

    See Nicoli and Paltrinieri [9].

  10. 10.

    See Drucker [10]; Schumpeter [11].

  11. 11.

    For an overview of startups in Italy see Gerosa and Arvidsson [12].

  12. 12.

    See Mundubeltz-Gendron [13].

  13. 13.

    See Boltanski and Esquerre [14, 21–106].

  14. 14.

    See Bruno and Didier [15].

  15. 15.

    See Laval [16, 321–346]; for a more in-depth analysis see Dardot and Laval [17].

  16. 16.

    See Deslandes [18]. On the role of management as “ideological configuration” see Boltanski and Chiapello [19].

  17. 17.

    See Foucault [20, 169].

  18. 18.

    See Mondzain [21, 27].

  19. 19.

    On the difference between regere and imperium see Senellart [22, 20 ff].

  20. 20.

    Platone, Symposium, 209 a; The Republic, 518 c ff.; Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, VI, 5; VI, 8 e VI, 9.

  21. 21.

    Vernant and Detienne [23].

  22. 22.

    M. Foucault, Security, Territory, Population, 169.

  23. 23.

    John, 10, 14–15.

  24. 24.

    See J. Gosling, H. Mintzberg, “The Five Minds of a Manager”, Harvard Businss Review, vol. 81, no. 11.

  25. 25.

    See Agamben [24].

  26. 26.

    See Michaud [25].

  27. 27.

    See Weber [26]; Tawney [27].

  28. 28.

    See Power [28].

  29. 29.

    See Nicoli [29].

  30. 30.

    Rosenblat and Stark [30]; Van Doorn [31].

  31. 31.

    See Pinto [32]; Dal Lago [33]; Del Rey [34].

  32. 32.

    Nietzsche [35, 37].

  33. 33.

    See Legendre [36].

  34. 34.

    For a theory of the affects and passions of post-Fordist workers see Virno [37, 13–36].

  35. 35.

    Hegel [38].

  36. 36.

    See Nicoli and Paltrinieri [39, 49–74]; Ciccarelli [40, 25–40]; Ciccarelli [41].

  37. 37.

    Deleuze [42]; Deleuze [43].

  38. 38.

    See Fisher [44]; Fisher [45].

  39. 39.

    See Davies [46].

  40. 40.

    See M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics.

  41. 41.

    See Rose [47]; Honneth [48]; De Carolis [49].

  42. 42.

    See Smail [50].

  43. 43.

    See Pacioni [51].

  44. 44.

    See Ehrenberg [52]; Godani [53].

  45. 45.

    See Becker [54].

  46. 46.

    See Becker and Murphy [55].

  47. 47.

    See M. Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics.

  48. 48.

    See Fisher [56].

  49. 49.

    See Ippolita, Quantified self, in Ippolita, Tecnologie del dominio, 223–226.

  50. 50.

    See Mallarmé [57]; Bussoni and Martino [58].

  51. 51.

    Foucault [59, 1393 ff].

  52. 52.

    See Foucault [60, 23–82].

  53. 53.

    See Nietzsche [61].

  54. 54.

    See G. Deleuze, Foucault.

  55. 55.

    See Dejours [62, 186].

  56. 56.

    See P. Dardot, C. Laval, La nouvelle raison du monde.

  57. 57.

    See Balibar [63].

  58. 58.

    Contemporary workers’ politics is grounded in mutual benefit. An example of this is the movement of workers in the entertainment sector in France. See Maurizio Lazzarato’s discussion with Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, who in Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme articulate an interpretation according to which the claims of precarious workers develop on the terrain of the political representation of the self, not on the economic one, a trend that originates in May 1968, viewed as the incubator of “neoliberalism”. The book is relevant because it represents a critique of the neo-liberal and conservative reversal of the claims for liberation and revolution that have characterised social movements over the last fifty years: see M. Lazzarato, “Mai 68, la «critique artiste» et la révolution néolibérale”, Revue des Livres et des idées, no. 7, September–October 2008. On the same subject see P. Dardot, C. Laval, La nouvelle raison du monde, which is a response to the work by Boltanski and Chiapello.

  59. 59.

    See Jullien [64, 113 ff].

  60. 60.

    See P. Dardot, C. Laval, Marx, prénom: Karl, 691–2.

  61. 61.

    See Dejours [65, 23 ff].

References

  1. Rose, N.: Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. Free Assn Books, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Sloterdijk, P.: You Must Change Your Life. Polity Press, Cambridge (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Simone-F, A.: Chicchi, La società della prestazione. Ediesse, Rome (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Brökling, U.: The Entrepreneurial Self: Fabricating a New Type of Subject. Sage, Los Angeles (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Gorz, A.: ‘La personne devient une entreprise’. Note sur le travail de production de soi. Revue du MAUSS 2/2001 (no 18), 61–66

    Google Scholar 

  6. Magakian, J.L.: Bientôt tous «égopreneurs»?. The Conversation, 29 Aug 2017

    Google Scholar 

  7. Clayton, N.D.: From Egopreneur to Ultrapreneur. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Lacan, J.: The Seminar of Jaques Lacan Book XVII: The Other Side of Psychoanalysis. Norton, New York (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Nicoli, M., Paltrinieri, L.: It’s still day one. Dall’imprenditore di sé alla start-up esistenziale. Aut Aut (forthcoming)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Drucker, P.: Innovazione e imprenditorialità. Etas, Milan (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Schumpeter, J.: Capitalismo, socialismo, democrazia. Etas, Milan (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gerosa, A., Arvidsson, A.: Start-up in Italia: limiti e potenzialità. Che Fare, 17 Feb 2017

    Google Scholar 

  13. Mundubeltz-Gendron, S.: Emmanuel Macron: la France doit devenir en 5 ans la nation des start-up. L’Usine digitale, 10 May 2017

    Google Scholar 

  14. Boltanski, L., Esquerre, A.: Enrichissement. Une critique de la marchandise. Gallimard, Paris (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Bruno, I., Didier, E.: Benchmarking. L’État sous pression statistique. Zone, Paris (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Laval, C.: L’homme économique. Essai sur les racines du néolibéralisme. Gallimard, Paris (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Dardot, P., Laval, C.: La nouvelle raison du monde. Essai sur la société néolibérale. La Découverte, Paris (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Deslandes, G.: Critique de la condition managériale. Puf, Paris (2016)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  19. Boltanski, L., Chiapello, E.: Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme. Gallimard, Paris (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Foucault, M.: Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France 1977–1978. Palgrave Macmillan, London (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Mondzain, M.J.: Image, Icône, Économie. Les sources byzantines de l’imaginaire contemporain. Seuil, Paris (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Senellart, M.: Les arts de gouverner, Du regimen médiéval au concept de gouvernement. Seuil, Paris (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Vernant, J.P., Detienne, M.: Les ruses de l’intelligence: la mètis des Grecs. Flammarion, Paris (1974)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Agamben, G.: Il regno e la gloria. Per una genealogia teologica dell’economia e del governo. Bollati Boringhieri, Turin (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Michaud, Y.: Qu’est-ce que le mérite?. Gallimard, Paris (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Weber, M.: The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Unwin Hyman, London, Boston (1930)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Tawney, R.: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York (1926)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Power, M.: The Audit Society. Rituals of Verifications. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Nicoli, M.: Risorse umane. Ediesse, Rome (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Rosenblat, A., Stark, L.: Algorithmic labor and information asymmetries: a case study of Uber’s drivers. Int. J. Commun. 10, 3758–3784 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  31. Van Doorn, N.: The neoliberal subject of value: measuring human capital in information economies. Cult. Polit. 10(3), 354–375 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Pinto, V.: Valutare e punire. Naples, Cronopio (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Dal Lago, A. (ed.): All’indice. Critica della cultura della valutazione. Aut Aut, 360, Oct–Dec 2013

    Google Scholar 

  34. Del Rey, A.: La Tyrannie de l’évalutation. La Découverte, Paris (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Nietzsche, F.: On the Genealogy of Morality. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  36. Legendre, P.: Dominium mundi. L’empire du management. Mille et une nuit, Paris (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Virno, P.: The ambivalence of disenchantment. In: Virno, P., Hardt, M. (eds.) Radical Thought in Italy. A Potential Politics. University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, London (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  38. Hegel, G.F.W.: The Phenomenology of Spirit. Fordham University Press, New York (1976)

    Google Scholar 

  39. Nicoli, M., Paltrinieri, L.: Il management di sé e degli altri. Aut Aut, 362. Il Saggiatore, Milan (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  40. Ciccarelli, R.: La vita indipendente. Sul contratto intimo e altre schiavitù del lavoro della conoscenza. In: Verlan, L. (ed.) AA.VV., Dire, fare, pensare. Quodlibet, Macerata (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  41. Ciccarelli, R.: Lavoro delle mie brame. La società degli individui 46, 78–91 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Deleuze, G.: Foucault. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  43. Deleuze, G.: Postscript on Control Societies. In: Negotiations. Columbia University Press, New York (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  44. Fisher, M.: Good for nothing. The Occupied Times, 19 Mar 2014

    Google Scholar 

  45. Fisher, M.: Capitalism Realism: Is There no Alternative?. Zero books, Winchester, Washington, D.C. (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  46. Davies, W.: The Happiness Industry: How Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being. Verso Books, London (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  47. Rose, N.: The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press, Oxford (2007)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  48. Honneth, A.: Organized self-realization: Some paradoxes of contemporary individualization. Eur. J. Soc. Theory 7(4), 463–478 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. De Carolis, M.: Il rovescio della libertà. Tramonto del neoliberalismo e disagio della civiltà. Quodlibet, Macerata (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  50. Smail, D.: The Origins of Unhappiness—A New Understanding of Personal Distress. Contable, London (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  51. Pacioni, M.: Neuroviventi, politica del cervello e controllo dei corpi. Mimesis, Milan (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  52. Ehrenberg, A.: La fatigue d’être soi. Dépression et société. Odile Jacob, Paris (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  53. Godani, P.: Senza padri. Economia del desiderio e condizioni di libertà nel capitalismo contemporaneo. DeriveApprodi, Rome (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  54. Becker, G.S.: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education. Columbia University Press, New York and London (1964)

    Google Scholar 

  55. Becker, G.S., Murphy, K.M.: The division of labor, coordination costs, and knowledge. Q. J. Econ. 107(4), 1137–1160 (1992)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Fisher, I.: The Nature of Capital and Income. The Macmillan Company, New York (1906)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  57. Mallarmé, S.: Un Coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard. Gallimard, Paris (1914)

    Google Scholar 

  58. Bussoni, I., Martino, N.: Ostinatamente dadi. OperaViva: un’arte del possibile. Opera Viva, 9 May 2016

    Google Scholar 

  59. Foucault, M.: Qu’est-ce que les Lumières?. In: Foucault, Dits et Ecrits, II. Gallimard, Paris (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  60. Foucault, M.: What is Critique? In: Lotringer, S., Hochroch, L. (eds.) The Politics of Truth: Michel Foucault. Semiotext(e), New York (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  61. Nietzsche, F.: Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None. Penguin Classics, London (1978)

    Google Scholar 

  62. Dejours, C.: Travail vivant. 1: Sexualité et travail. Payot, Paris (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  63. Balibar, E.: Dall’individualità alla transindividualità. In: Balibar, E. (ed.) Spinoza, The Transindividual. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  64. Jullien, F.: Vivre en existant. Une nouvelle éthique. Gallimard, Paris (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  65. Dejours, C.: Travail vivant. 2: travail et émancipation. Payot, Paris (2009)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Ciccarelli

  2. Il Manifesto, Rome, Italy

    Roberto Ciccarelli

Authors
  1. Roberto Ciccarelli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ciccarelli, R. (2021). The Entrepreneurial Self. In: Labour Power. Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70862-7_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70862-7_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-70861-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-70862-7

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation