A CAPITALISM THAT NEUTRALIZES THE CRITIQUE? THE DISCOURSES OF NEW MANAGEMENT IN FRONT OF THE INDICTMENTS TO THE “LABOUR SOCIETY”

Abstract

The transformations occurred in the production system since the early 1970s have generated a series of discussions and theoretical positions about the place of labor in contemporary societies. Habermas and Gorz are two of the theorists who have argued in this context that developed societies transit a model in which necessary labor time decreases inevitably, and unemployment and job insecurity become structural. Nevertheless, this will be seen as an opportunity, because they understand that labor would have ceased to be the place where individuals could realize themselves, even surpassed capitalism. The challenge would lie, consequently, in finding alternatives to the called “labor society”. However, contemporary discourses of business management seem to place a question mark to such analysis, because these discourses are touting the active, personal and affective involvement of subjects in production processes. This would give rise to the following paradox: what those authors understood that could only flourish beyond the productive spaces is precisely what contemporary management demands for labor firstly, and this in order to improve productivity and increase the corporate profits. The aim of this article is to present in detail and conceptual rigor this paradox, from the ethical and epistemological horizon of a critical theory that allows to study the present, detecting both its fissures and its inherent possibilities for social and political transformation.