Resistance as a way of life: How a group of workers perpetuated insubordination to neoliberal management

Sanson, David and Courpasson, David ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1961-0496 2022. Resistance as a way of life: How a group of workers perpetuated insubordination to neoliberal management. Organization Studies 43 (11) , pp. 1693-1717. 10.1177/01708406221077780

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Abstract

This article sheds light on how a group of workers manage to create an enduring collective resistance, in an uncongenial context of neoliberal management pushing for compliant behaviours. Research on resistance has given scant attention to the concrete conditions through which collective resisting efforts can be sustained, despite adverse contexts. We highlight the process through which everyday collective resistance produces substantial effects and becomes viewed by management and workers as an integral part of an organization’s power relations. We particularly illuminate how practices that mutually constitute belongingness and insubordination continuously reinforce collective resistance to make it the very texture of workers’ lives. We therefore analyse everyday resistance as a way of life, through which workers aim to simultaneously contest managerial authority and protect their own social boundaries in a neoliberal context. Thereby, we offer a way to reconcile recognition and post-recognition politics in a dialogue envisaging the ‘efficacy’ of resistance in a new light.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0170-8406
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	12 May 2022
Date of Acceptance:	10 January 2022
Last Modified:	26 Nov 2024 09:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/149715

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