The Worthy Human Being as Prosuming Subject: ‘Projectified Selves’ in Emancipatory Project Studies

• Published in: Project management journal Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 367 - 377
• Main Authors: Berglund, Karin, Lindgren, Monica, Packendorff, Johann
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2020; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Business Studies; enterprise culture; entrepreneurial self; Företagsekonomi; Industrial Economics and Management; Industriell ekonomi och organisation; neoliberalism; projectification; projectified self; prosumption; worth; projectification; entrepreneurial self; prosumption; neoliberalism; projectified self; enterprise culture; worth
• ISSN: 8756-9728; 1938-9507; 1938-9507
• DOI: 10.1177/8756972820930534

The projectified self is suggested in this article as a way to advance emancipatory project studies toward improved understandings of how individuals in contemporary neoliberal societies are urged to become self-controlling, self-improving, self-commercializing, life-compartmentalizing, and deadline driven. We propose (1) a developed theoretical foundation for studies of the projectified self, based on recent writings on enterprising selves, and (2) the notion of prosumption as a concept for how the worthiness of this projectified self is constructed in a simultaneous process of project-based production and consumption. This is discussed in relation to the on-going studies of social media entrepreneurs.