The New Spirit of Capitalism

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The New Spirit of Capitalism

Book•

The New Spirit of Capitalism

Luc Boltanski¹, Eve Chiapello¹•Institutions (1)

01 Jan 2005-

TL;DR: A century after the publication of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, a major new work examines network-based organization, employee autonomy and post-Fordist horizontal work structures.

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Abstract: A century after the publication of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit" of Capitalism, a major new work examines network-based organization, employee autonomy and post-Fordist horizontal work structures.

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Journal Article•DOI•

Enacting Music Scenes: Mobility, Locality and Cultural Production

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Manuel Tironi¹•Institutions (1)

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile¹

19 Apr 2012-Mobilities

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue for a mobile, transient and fluid approach to localized (cultural) economies by drawing on the case of Santiago's experimental music scene, in Chile.

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26 citations

Cites background from "The New Spirit of Capitalism"

...…than a self-contained, enduring and institutionally rooted unity – usually assumed by cluster theory (cf. Moulaert and Sekia 2003) – are task-oriented, market-responsive, transient and flexible actor-networks (Boltanski and Chiapello 1999, DeFillipi and Arthur 1998, Grabher 2001 2002a and 2002b)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The Welfare Conventions Approach: A Comparative Perspective on Social Impact Bonds

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Eve Chiapello¹, Lisa Knoll²•Institutions (2)

School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences¹, University of Hamburg²

03 Mar 2020-Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice

TL;DR: The Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a new funding mechanism for welfare programs as mentioned in this paper, which is supposed to create savings for the public sector from which private returns can be deducted.

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Abstract: The Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a new funding mechanism for welfare programs. It is supposed to create savings for the public sector from which private returns can be deducted. Presented as a purel...

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26 citations

Cites background from "The New Spirit of Capitalism"

...…and instruments are analyzed as embodiments of specific – and historically diverse – forms of justice and fairness (Boltanski and Thévenot 2006) and historical transformation emanates from disputes and compromises between these “orders of worth” (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005; Chiapello 2013)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

The concept of governance in the spirit of capitalism

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Matthew Eagleton-Pierce¹•Institutions (1)

SOAS, University of London¹

15 Apr 2014-Critical Policy Studies

TL;DR: In this paper, the early genesis of the policy notion of governance in relation to ideological changes in capitalism is explained through combining insights from political economy and sociology, through a distinctive comparison between the creation of "corporate governance" in the 1970s and the formulation of a "governance agenda" by the World Bank from the 1980s.

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Abstract: Through combining insights from political economy and sociology, this article explains the early genesis of the policy notion of governance in relation to ideological changes in capitalism. Such an approach has tended to be neglected in existing conceptual histories, in the process, undermining a sharper politicization of the term and how it became normalized. The argument dissects how the emergence of governance can be understood in light of a relationship between political crises, social critique and justificatory arguments (centered around security and justice claims) that form part of an ideological ‘spirit of capitalism’. Through a distinctive comparison between the creation of ‘corporate governance’ in the 1970s and the formulation of a ‘governance agenda’ by the World Bank from the 1980s, the article elucidates how the concept, within certain policy uses, but by no means all, can reflect and help constitute a neoliberal spirit of capitalism.

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26 citations

Cites background or methods from "The New Spirit of Capitalism"

...Among the many interesting arguments developed by Boltanski and Chiapello, they underscore how each ethos of capitalism not only works to stimulate new strategies of profit generation, but also contains ideas that, in part, constrain accumulation processes (Boltanski and Chiapello 2007, pp. 24–27)....
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...Again, in this sense, Boltanski and Chiapello’s argument runs counter to the cruder Marxist depiction of ideology as some imposing regime and, instead, proposes that critique serves as a major ‘motor of change’ in capitalism (Boltanski and Chiapello 2007, pp. xx–xxi)....
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...Indeed, they propose that the degree to which the system is legitimized is intimately associated with how constraints are imposed on capitalist behavior (Boltanski and Chiapello 2007, pp. xx)....
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...…also, through a period of reflection, experimentation and potential incorporation, critique may inadvertently ‘give’ new ideological resources to reinvigorate capitalism (or, rather, capitalism ‘captures’ and claims new ideas for itself) (for instance, see Boltanski and Chiapello 2007, pp. 27–30)....
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...The arguments offered here tend to revolve around notions of liberation, with particular appeals to innovation and creativity as sought-after drivers of capitalist growth (for instance, see Boltanski and Chiapello 2007, pp. 12–16)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

‘Full power despite stress’: A discourse analytical examination of the interconnectedness of postfeminism and neoliberalism in the domain of work in an international women’s magazine

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Kati Kauppinen¹•Institutions (1)

University of Jyväskylä¹

22 Apr 2013-Discourse & Communication

TL;DR: Stories and images of successful career women and support for women's advancement in working life have become hallmarks of contemporary postfeminist media culture, and especially of women's magazin...

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Abstract: Stories and images of successful career women and support for women’s advancement in working life have become hallmarks of contemporary postfeminist media culture, and especially of women’s magazin...

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26 citations

Cites result from "The New Spirit of Capitalism"

...…more importantly, the ways of acting and modes of thinking she is advised to adopt, not the least of which is the will to succeed, are entirely compatible with those expected from entrepreneurial employees in the contemporary world of work (see e.g. Boltanski and Chiapello, 2007; Bröckling, 2007)....
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Journal Article•DOI•

Knowledge and Practice: Organization Studies within a Historical and Figurational Context

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Tim Newton¹•Institutions (1)

University of Exeter¹

01 Sep 2010-Organization Studies

TL;DR: In this paper, the historical and figurational context of the field of organization studies is examined and it is argued that high impact may be associated with fields that have low control, and that single overarching strategies may be ineffective in raising impact.

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Abstract: Drawing on the work of Norbert Elias, this paper argues that attention to the historical and ‘figurational’ context of organization studies is necessary in order to understand the impact of its scholarship on management practice and public policy. This perspective is used to question conventional wisdom about the ‘failings’ of the organization studies field. In particular, attention is paid to (1) questioning the argument that the impact of organization studies is limited by its pluralism; (2) related paradigm incommensurability debates; (3) challenging other supposed limitations of the field, such as a tendency toward ‘fads and fashions’. In addition, it is argued that high impact may be associated with fields that have low control, and that single overarching strategies may be ineffective in raising impact. In presenting such argument, emphasis is placed on the significance of the dominant logics of governance of particular historical eras. In so doing, the paper draws attention to the need to consider ...

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26 citations

Cites background from "The New Spirit of Capitalism"

...They argue that the requirement to evidence autonomy and enterprise represents a faux human relations (Sennett 1998; Boltanski and Chiapello 2005) and a cynical manipulation of employees designed to maximize labour productivity and profit (Thompson and Ackroyd 1995)....
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...…between employers and organized labour, which meant that the employee was increasingly required to become ‘active’, ‘go-getting’, ‘problem-owning’ and ‘turned on’ or, at minimum, to pay lip service to such ideas (Bourdieu 1998, 2003, 2005; Boltanski and Chiapello 2005; Kunda 1992; Newton 2001)....
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...…2008: 79, 215), whether through the purchase of private housing, social and health insurance, or through the enterprising pursuit of selffulfilment in the workplace where ‘creativity, reactivity and flexibility are the new watchwords’ (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005: 90; cf. Miller and Rose 1990)....
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...They evidence an ability to re-clothe the desire for ‘authentic human relations’ (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005: 98) in the image of the enterprising, flexible employee who is required to become ‘more dependent on their own resources’ in the ‘post-entrepreneurial era’ (Moss Kanter 1990: 321)....
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References

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Open Access

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Journal Article•DOI•

A thousand plateaus : capitalism and schizophrenia

[...]

Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Brian Massumi

21 Jan 1989-Journal of Interdisciplinary History

TL;DR: In this paper, a translation of the poem "The Pleasures of Philosophy" is presented, with a discussion of concrete rules and abstract machines in the context of art and philosophy.

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Abstract: Translator's Foreword: Pleasures of Philosophy Notes on the Translation and Acknowledgements Author's Note 1. Introduction: Rhizome 2. 1914: One or Several Wolves? 3. 10,000 BC: The Geology of Morals (Who Does the Earth Think It Is?) 4. November 20th, 1923: Postulates of Linguistics 5. 587BC-AD70: On Several Regimes of Signs 6. November 28th, 1947: How Do You Make Yourself a Body Without Organs? 7. Year Zero: Faciality 8. 1874: Three Novellas, or "What Happened?" 9. 1933: Micropolitics and Segmentarity 10. 1730: Becoming Intense, Becoming-Animal, Becoming Imperceptible... 11. 1837: Of the Refrain 12. 1227: Treatise on Nomadology - The War Machine 13. 7000BC: Apparatus of Capture 14. 1440: The Smooth and the Striated 15. Conclusion: Concrete Rules and Abstract Machines Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index

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14,735 citations

Journal Article•DOI•

The Strategy of Conflict.

[...]

Anatol Rapoport, Thomas C. Schelling

01 Jun 1961-Journal of the American Statistical Association

5,247 citations

Posted Content•

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

[...]

Paolo Leon

01 Jan 2012

TL;DR: The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray as discussed by the authors, and a good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan's economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker's Rule.

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Abstract: The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

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3,447 citations

Book•

The Society of the Spectacle

[...]

Guy Debord

01 Jan 1967

TL;DR: The Society of the Spectacle as mentioned in this paper is one of the most influential theoretical works for a wide range of political and revolutionary practice in the 1960s, and it has been widely used in the literature since.

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Abstract: For the first time, Guy Debord's pivotal work Society of the Spectacle appears in a definitive and authoritative English translation. Originally published in France in 1967, Society of the Spectacle offered a set of radically new propositions about the nature of contemporary capitalism and modern culture. At the same time it was one of the most influential theoretical works for a wide range of political and revolutionary practice in the 1960s. Today, Debord's work continues to be in the forefront of debates about the fate of consumer society and the operation of modern social power. In a sweeping revision of Marxist categories, the notion of the spectacle takes the problem of the commodity from the sphere of economics to a point at which the commodity as an image dominates not only economic exchange but the primary communicative and symbolic activity of all modern societies.Guy Debord was one of the most important participants in the activities associated with the Situationist International in the 1960s. Also an artist and filmmaker, he is the author of Memoires and Commentaires sur la societe du spectacle. A Swerve Edition, distributed for Zone Books.

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3,391 citations

Book•

Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting

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H. Thomas Johnson, Robert S. Kaplan

01 Mar 1987

TL;DR: Relevance Lost as mentioned in this paper is an overview of the evolution of management accounting in American business, from textile mills in the 1880s and the giant railroad, steel, and retail corporations, to today's environment of global competition and computer-automated manufacturers.

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Abstract: "Relevance Lost" is an overview of the evolution of management accounting in American business, from textile mills in the 1880s and the giant railroad, steel, and retail corporations, to today's environment of global competition and computer-automated manufacturers. The book shows that modern corporations must work toward designing new management accounting systems that will assist managers more fully in their long-term planning. It is the winner of the American Accounting Association's Deloitte Haskins & Sells/Wildman Award Medal. It is also available in paperback: ISBN 0875842542.

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3,308 citations