Neoliberal entrepreneurship rhetoric masks a reality of collective corporate effort
Evidence
Herbert Giersch’s entrepreneurship amounts to the paradox of individualism. The complexity of contemporary capitalism requires a collective effort disguised by a language of entrepreneurship. Individual entrepreneurial behavior aside, the discussion is focused on the firm, on capital, on technological knowledge, and on managerial skill for the entrepreneurial talent to work out. Since it is probably “easier for a person to acquire managerial skills than to accumulate capital, it appears evident that capitalists will normally hire entrepreneurs. In this case, capital becomes the limiting factor and the barrier to entry,” writes Giersch. Note that the person hires managerial skills suddenly rather than entrepreneurial talent. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 306
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The ‘paradox of individualism’ — collective corporate organization disguised as individual entrepreneurship — is a dense, sharp critique that undercuts the stereotype of naive market individualism and resists one-line summary.
- XREF: Echoes Mirowski’s machine-in-the-ghost argument about the corporation in neoliberal theory; connects to Quinn Slobodian’s work on global governance. — connects to: Web 2.0 repackaged American mythologies like rags-to-riches entrepreneurship into startup culture — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 22; New Economy rhetoric framed corporate labor as creative self-actualization to secure unpaid overtime. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 144; Self-help entrepreneurship manuals deploy neoliberal motivational language to sell independence. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 459 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Silicon Valley’s workplace utopia narrative concealed toxic corporate cultures
#exemplifies(0.82) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 504 - The ideal neoliberal subject is a self-sufficient entrepreneurial risk-taker
#complicates(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 36