Conference paper
Responsibility vs. Responsibilisation: The neoliberal space of human activity
11th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference: Radical Interventions Politics, Culture, Society (University of Brighton, UK, 07/09/2016–09/09/2016)
2016
Abstract
In this paper, I will discuss the neoliberal construction of the subject as an entrepreneurial self, based on the
economic notion of ‘human capital’. I will argue that this framing of the self is a fiction that has become
accepted as everyday reality: this reduces the political space to that of the marketplace, the state to a
corporation, and education to a vocational training ground, producing compliant subjects for a risk-driven
present defined by corporate logic. I will revisit Jan Patočka’s paper on ‘Super-civilisation’ to offer a possible
understanding of this new configuration of society. Patočka’s consideration of the changes to modern society
is an extension of his concern with the ‘responsibility of the subject.’ I will sketch his argument in opposition
to the notion of ‘responsibilisation’ of the neoliberal subject, which is the outcome of the changes I have
outlined above. The neoliberal subject is configured on the entrepreneurial model, whereby the social and
political become reduced to the personal risk of the ‘responsibilised’ neoliberal subject.
Details
- Title
- Responsibility vs. Responsibilisation: The neoliberal space of human activity
- Authors/Creators
- L. Učník (Author/Creator)
- Conference
- 11th Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference: Radical Interventions Politics, Culture, Society (University of Brighton, UK, 07/09/2016–09/09/2016)
- Identifiers
- 991005540011307891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Arts
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference paper
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