Abstract
In this chapter, we explore the effects of specific kinds of rhetorical work in the construction of new and more effective subjects within a contemporary neo-liberal regime of the provision of care. The chapter is inspired by the writings on techniques of governance in the later work of Michel Foucault (Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collège de France 1977–1978. Palgrave MacMillan, Houndmills, 2007), Mitchell Dean (Critical and effective histories: Foucault’s methods and historical sociology. Routledge, London, 1994; Governmentality: power and rule in modern society. Sage, London, 1999) and Nikolas Rose (Powers of freedom: reframing political thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999). Drawing on data of language interactions between a manager and her workers at a nursing home for elderly people in Sweden, we explore a specific technique of invitation as it works to mobilize care workers in particular ways.
This technique, we argue, is linked to a wider regime of care, within contemporary discourses of new public management and new managerialism, which seek to govern by shaping active entrepreneurial workers.
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Fejes, A., Nicoll, K. (2012). Rhetorical Activation of Workers: A Case Study in Neo-liberal Governance. In: Hager, P., Lee, A., Reich, A. (eds) Practice, Learning and Change. Professional and Practice-based Learning, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4774-6_11
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