Description: The way large numbers of people in the developed economies sell their time, skills and efforts in the 21st Century world of paid work is damaging to their health, well-being and relationships. They are required to commit more to the organisations they work for, who then subject them to an intensification of the expectations related to their performance claims Peter Kelly. In The Self as Enterprise, he analyses the various injunctions and incitements to develop new work ethics reflecting the way people practice their freedom in relation to the world of paid work. This is an important contribution to the debate about the nature of work related identities and the consequences of the intensification of the work regimes in which these identities are regulated and displayed. For anyone interested in how all aspects of workers' lives are now seen as performance related and consequently of interest to their employers.
Review Quotes: 'From childhood we seem to be moulded for work, not play. Peter Kelly's new book shows some of the costs and consequences of aiming to be employable, and making our lives into careers. The Self as Enterprise is a compelling guide to the prison we have made, and the possibility of escape.' Martin Parker, University of Leicester School of Management, UK 'Provocative, eloquent and highly readable, this book will rearrange thinking about the ethics of work and the work of ethics. It shows how selfhood and society have been reconstituted as flexible capitalism and the flexible self coincide. It clarifies the intricate logics of current workplaces with their regular incantations about reinvention and their relentless invitations for us to be ever-new.' Jane Kenway, Monash University, Australia