The competent public sphere : global political economy, dialogue, and the contemporary workplace

There have been several people who have assisted and helped me along the way while writing this book. First, my immediate family has been as always a great source of inspiration and I owe them a huge debt. Next, I would like send thanks to Myria Georgiou, Peter Lunt, Monica Degen, Teela Sanders and Peter Wilkin. A special note of appreciation also goes out to Colin Cremin for friendship and discussion. I also owe Colin a large debt of gratitude for reading and commenting on the book manuscript. In addition I would like to thank Olivia Middleton at Palgrave and Shirley Tan at Expo Holdings who both provided much needed advice and encouragement. And finally I would like to send huge thanks to Mary and also thanks to her family. This book is dedicated to you, Mary. vi 1 1 Introducing Competence and the Public Sphere The New Economy as the Fetish of Financialisation "Drawing on Marxism and engaging with theorists such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Gilles Deleuze, and Slavoj Zizek, John Michael Roberts argues that a new expressive ideology has coalesced within the contemporary workplace around the theme of 'competence'. The 'competence' agenda encourages management and workers to build networks of trust, cooperation and dialogue between one another. By examining the competent public sphere as it appears in the global economy, the author takes to task the competence agenda, relates this agenda to the hegemony of global finance and to the fetishism of the new economy, exposes the dilemmas and contradictions of the competence agenda, and through everyday examples from the UK and USA illustrates how competence is played out and resisted in the contemporary workplace. This book provides a fascinating critical account of how the way we work today is debated and discussed by management and workers."--Book cover Cover 1 Contents 6 Acknowledgements 7 1 Introducing Competence and the Public Sphere 8 2 The New Economy 25 3 The New Economy as the Fetish of Financialisation 36 4 The Competent Public Sphere of the New Economy 75 5 Democracy and Participation in the Competent Public Sphere 96 6 Silencing the Thematic Utterances of Workers 116 7 Trade Unions, Participation, and the Proletarian Public Sphere 135 8 Conclusion: Towards a Socialist Public Sphere 158 Bibliography 187 Index 208 A 208 B 208 C 208 D 208 E 209 F 209 G 209 H 209 I 209 J 209 K 209 L 209 M 209 N 210 O 210 P 210 R 210 S 210 T 211 U 211 V 211 W 211 Z 211 9780230008731 Suggesting that an expressive ideology has arisen within the workplace public sphere around the theme of 'competence', this book explores the hegemony of global finance and the fetishism of the new economy, exposing the dilemmas of the competence agenda, and illustrating how competence is played out in the workplace public sphere.