The Values of the enterprise culture: the moral debate; Chapter 9 - Governing the enterprising self

Critical Analysis

In this text, the author argues that governance of the state has shifted to emphasize self-enterprise, rather than direct government intervention: following a neoliberal perspective, state-governing exists to pave the way for self-governing, and this demands an enterprising subject. This enterprising nature extends far beyond traditional discourse, and into spaces of self-help and wellness. A self that is governed in a modern sense is urged to control themselves and their circumstances in all aspects of society.

A great deal of the enterprising self is constructed through language—that the “very language that we use to make persons thinkable” (141) shapes the space of an enterprising self. Discourse references aspirations of autonomy, striving for a sense of personal fulfillment, and taking action to optimize personal self and circumstances. This is an “autonomous, choosing, free self” (142). This self, the author argues, is produced by government in order to develop a sense of economic stability and order. On a more local level, studio discourse urges the same sense of order through individual action: that a student can structure the world by structuring themselves. The power dynamic is amplified, both actually and through the language of studio, and students describe creative confidence often in the context of claims of authorship and control.

Heavily referencing Foucault, the author describes that social structures construct technologies of self, and are “embodied in the design of institutional space, the arrangements of institutional time and activity, procedures of reward and punishment, and the operation of systems of norms and judgements” (144). These are structured in a way as to encourage the growth and improvement of a personal self. Language of enterprise, the author explains, is particularly effective in reinforcing this way of thinking, as “enterprise links up a seductive ethics of the self… it provides an image of a mode of activity to be encourage in a multitude of arenas of life [including] the school” (145). Institutionalized education offers a unique venue for introducing language of enterprise and subjectivity, and the “growth of expert languages that enable us to render our relations with ourselves and others into words and thoughts” (149).

The rules of enterprise are those of entrepreneurialism: “energy, initiative, ambition, calculation and personal responsibility” (146). Work is a place for expressing these qualities of autonomy, where traditional views of a worker are replaced by “an individual in search of meaning and fulfilment, and work itself is interpreted as a site within which individuals represent, construct and confirm their identity” (154). The author described entrepreneurship only a few times, but establishes a foundation of thinking that Bröckling later builds on: an enterprising self is one that not only takes control of their life in a constant pursuit of improvement, but also sees the world as a canvas for implementing this value-based existence.