Beyond Knowledge Capitalism’s Happy Labour Subject

This article unravels the workings of happiness as integral to knowledge capitalism’s ‘emotionality of rule’ from the perspectives of two cohorts of ‘knowledge workers’: digital creatives and academics. It analyses the ways in which the study participants make work a site of personal fulfilment and...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSociology (Oxford) Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 297 - 315
Main Author Gray, Breda
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London, England SAGE Publications 01.04.2022
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects
Academic staff
Capitalism
Dominance
Emotionality
Fulfilment
Happiness
Knowledge
Labor
Work
Workers
positive psychology
emotional labour
happiness
affect
knowledge worker
knowledge capitalism
academics
emotionality of rule
digital creatives
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Summary:This article unravels the workings of happiness as integral to knowledge capitalism’s ‘emotionality of rule’ from the perspectives of two cohorts of ‘knowledge workers’: digital creatives and academics. It analyses the ways in which the study participants make work a site of personal fulfilment and happiness as they strive to become ‘happy’ labour subjects. Despite their different worklife trajectories, both cohorts appeal to the promise of happy entrepreneurial productivism. This promise attaches workers to the privileges of knowledge work in ways that downplay its costs. However, the dominance of knowledge capitalism’s happy labour subject is challenged by the backgrounded significance of work’s social benefits in their accounts. As such, this article argues that the individualised depoliticisation of contemporary ‘knowledge work’ can be challenged by re-valorising work’s social contributions.
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ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/00380385211028153