- Innsbruck, Tirol, Austria
Richard Weiskopf
University of Innsbruck, Department of Organization and Learning, Department Member
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Within the globalised ‘network society’ (Castells, 2001), demands for mobility and movement have become predominant aspects of contemporary social life (Bauman, 2007; Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005; Cresswell, 2006; Urry, 2007). Exerting... more
Within the globalised ‘network society’ (Castells, 2001), demands for mobility and movement have become predominant aspects of contemporary social life (Bauman, 2007; Boltanski and Chiapello, 2005; Cresswell, 2006; Urry, 2007). Exerting an influence upon different social spheres, these demands have transformed the traditional relations of the realms of government and economy, the public and private, and work and life (Cohen et al., 2015; Donzelot and Gordon, 2008). In particular, present-day governmental programmes refer to and evoke discourses around free and unconstrained movements, forms of work and careers (Baerenholdt, 2013). These discourses promote the mobilisation and activation of working subjects and their human capital (Chertkovskaya et al., 2013; Costas, 2013; Foucault, 2008) as well as, more generally, the mobilisation of production, consumption, and communication in all sorts of social networks (Corbett, 2013; Elliott and Urry, 2010; Land and Taylor, 2010).
Research Interests: Sociology and Mobilities
Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag problematisiert das »new profiling«. Dieses bezieht seine Attraktivität aus dem Versprechen, mithilfe von Daten und leistungsfähigen Algorithmen Unsicherheit zu reduzieren und das Verhalten, Denken, Entscheiden... more
Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag problematisiert das »new profiling«. Dieses bezieht seine Attraktivität aus dem Versprechen, mithilfe von Daten und leistungsfähigen Algorithmen Unsicherheit zu reduzieren und das Verhalten, Denken, Entscheiden von Menschen vorhersehbar zu machen. Auf der Basis scheinbar rationaler und neutraler Berechnungen verwandeln diese »Vorhersageprodukte« (S. Zuboff) das offene Werden in eine kalkulierte Zukunft, die zu einer Quelle der Generierung von Einkommen und Kapital wird und zugleich mögliche Zukünfte verbaut.
This paper situates organisational transparency in an agonistic space that is shaped by the interplay of ‘mechanisms of power that adhere to a truth’ and critical practices that come from below in a movement of ‘not being governed like... more
This paper situates organisational transparency in an agonistic space that is shaped by the interplay of ‘mechanisms of power that adhere to a truth’ and critical practices that come from below in a movement of ‘not being governed like that and at that cost’ (Foucault, 2003: 265). This positioning involves an understanding of transparency as a practice that is historically contingent and multiple, and thus negotiable and contested. By illustrating the entanglement of ‘power through transparency’ and ‘counter-transparency’ with reference to the example of Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing, the paper contributes to the critique of transparency and to debates on the use of Foucauldian concepts in post-panoptic contexts of organising. By introducing the notion of ‘counter-transparency’, the paper expands the conceptual vocabulary for understanding the politics and ethics of managing and organising visibility.
Research Interests:
Personalauswahl ist ein heikles Geschäft - kostspielig und risikoreich für die meisten Beteiligten. Daran können auch noch so elaborierte Selektionsverfahren grundsätzlich nichts ändern, solange diese darauf abzielen, Individuen, deren... more
Personalauswahl ist ein heikles Geschäft - kostspielig und risikoreich für die meisten Beteiligten. Daran können auch noch so elaborierte Selektionsverfahren grundsätzlich nichts ändern, solange diese darauf abzielen, Individuen, deren Eignung und deren Identität psychometrisch-kriminologisch „auf die Spur zu kommen”. Auf der Basis einer sorgfältigen Prämissenkritik des herrschenden Vermessungs-Paradigmas und anknüpfend an der Metapher des „Machtspiels” plädieren die Verfasser für einen grundlegenden Perspektivenwechsel: Personalauswahlverfahren produzieren selbst, was sie zu messen vorgeben - das Personal von Organisationen.
Research Interests:
Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the interplay of mediating technologies and... more
Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the interplay of mediating technologies and normative arrangements in the formation of transparency as a heterogeneous regime of visibility. Using the emerging and controversial social credit system in China as a critical case, we make two contributions. First, we enrich the conceptual vocabulary for the study of transparency as a dynamic multiplicity with varying power effects in different contexts, challenging in this way universalizing and otherwise reductive notions of transparency. Second, by emphasizing the operation of several coexisting matrices we provide a novel way of approaching the ‘post panoptic’ condition which can account not only for the power effects of different modalities of transparency, but also for the instabilities and potential openings that are generated by their inter...
Der «regierbare Mensch» ist keine Naturgegebenheit. Er muss vielmehr durch vielfältige Techniken und Praktiken hergestellt werden. Dieser Aufgabe haben sich die diversen «Menschenregierungskünste» verschrieben. In diesem Beitrag wird mit... more
Der «regierbare Mensch» ist keine Naturgegebenheit. Er muss vielmehr durch vielfältige Techniken und Praktiken hergestellt werden. Dieser Aufgabe haben sich die diversen «Menschenregierungskünste» verschrieben. In diesem Beitrag wird mit Bezug auf Michel Foucault auf die Logik der Produktion des regierbaren Menschen eingegangen. Anhand konkreter Beispiele aus der Organisationspsychologie und der Personalführung wird dieser (prekäre) Produktionsprozess veranschaulicht. Der flexible und anpassungsfähige Mensch, den das post-disziplinäre Regime bzw. die «Kontrollgesellschaft» (G. Deleuze) (er)fordert, stellt diese Produktionslogik zum Teil in Frage bzw. gibt ihr eine neue Wendung: Gefordert wird das «selbstverantwortliche» und «unternehmerische» Subjekt, das sich selbst regiert und wie ein Unternehmen «führt» und zur «Kompetenzmaschine» (M. Foucault) mutiert. In dem Beitrag wird das Wie der Produktion in den in den Vordergrund gerückt. Im abschließenden Teil wird über Implikationen bzw...
In this paper, we develop an approach to the study of whistleblowing as a critical practice that is involved in the contestation of truth and power in the workplace. We situate our analysis in the context of practice-based thinking and... more
In this paper, we develop an approach to the study of whistleblowing as a critical practice that is involved in the contestation of truth and power in the workplace. We situate our analysis in the context of practice-based thinking and specify the social practice of whistleblowing with reference to Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘parrhesia’ (frank speech). We then introduce the case of Guido Strack, a former European Union official who worked as section leader at the Office des Publications Officielles des Communautés Européenne from 1995 to 2002. Strack spoke out against malpractice in the EU in 2001 and officially reported alleged financial misconduct in 2002. In our analysis, we focus on the interplay between and effects of different modes of truth-telling in the context of this specific organization – a context marked by the uneasy coexistence of different normative and discursive frames. We argue that the parrhesiastic modality of truth-telling threatens the established ‘working ...
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This article provides a contribution to the Foucauldian problematization of HRM. It draws particular attention to Foucault’s lectures that were devoted to re-conceptualizing power relations to accommodate transformations that have arisen... more
This article provides a contribution to the Foucauldian problematization of HRM. It draws particular attention to Foucault’s lectures that were devoted to re-conceptualizing power relations to accommodate transformations that have arisen from the emergence of liberal and neoliberal forms of government. Whilst Foucauldian approaches to HRM have mainly focused on the centripetal elements of disciplinary power in modern management, they have tended to neglect the centrifugal mechanisms aimed at the controlled circulation of flows within networks. The article shows how these mechanisms gain in importance along with HRM’s reframing in terms of human capital. Our analysis outlines a number of modifications in the apparatus of power that emerge as a consequence of this reframing, showing how human capital management operationalizes a specific style of governmental rationality.
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Research Interests:
As addressed in previous issues of ephemera, in contemporary political economy, the conjunction of openness and closure, visibility and invisibility, and transparency and secrecy of information is precarious (e.g. Bachmann et al., 2017;... more
As addressed in previous issues of ephemera, in contemporary political economy, the conjunction of openness and closure, visibility and invisibility, and transparency and secrecy of information is precarious (e.g. Bachmann et al., 2017; Curtis and Weir, 2016). Information and ‘truth’ have been turned into objects of contention, and it is increasingly contested what is considered sound information and truth, who has access to which type of information, and who is in the position to shape and control information and promote truth(s) (Munro, 2017). The struggles and complexities of negotiating information, truth and the ‘politics of truth’ (Foucault, 2007) are also accompanied by the fact that, in a society in which mass communication and media gain in importance, organisations have become ‘leaky containers’ (Lyon, 2002). This is evidenced in an exemplary way by the NSA affair and Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass surveillance, the WikiLeaks-disclosures, commonly associated with the...
Research Interests: Philosophy and Ephemera
Research Interests:
This paper looks at the work of the Austrian film-maker Michael Haneke as an inspiration for developing an ethical-aesthetic critique of organization. Haneke’s practice of film-making is located in the tradition of an ‘ethical parrhesia’... more
This paper looks at the work of the Austrian film-maker Michael Haneke as an inspiration for developing an ethical-aesthetic critique of organization. Haneke’s practice of film-making is located in the tradition of an ‘ethical parrhesia’ (Foucault 2005; 2009), the courageous and often dangerous ‘truth-telling’, which aims at the transformation of being. Haneke’s approach is then illustrated with an analysis of his film The White Ribbon. This example is taken to illustrate an ethical critique of moral organization and for analysing strategies that seek to instigate open-ended moral reflection. By discussing implications of this form of critique the paper contributes to the development of a critical aesthetics of organization that seeks to open a reflexive space on how we are formed in social and organizational life, and at what costs.
In this paper, we develop an approach to the study of whistleblowing as a critical practice that is involved in the contestation of truth and power in the workplace. We situate our analysis in the context of practice-based thinking and... more
In this paper, we develop an approach to the study of whistleblowing as a critical practice that is involved in the contestation of truth and power in the workplace. We situate our analysis in the context of practice-based thinking and specify the social practice of whistleblowing with reference to Michel Foucault's concept of 'parrhesia' (frank speech). We then introduce the case of Guido Strack, a former European Union official who worked as section leader at the Office des Publications Officielles des Communautés Européenne from 1995 to 2002. Strack spoke out against malpractice in the EU in 2001 and officially reported alleged financial misconduct in 2002. In our analysis, we focus on the interplay between and effects of different modes of truth-telling in the context of this specific organization-a context marked by the uneasy coexistence of different normative and discursive frames. We argue that the parrhesiastic modality of truth-telling threatens the established 'working solutions' that reconcile the tensions inherent in the regime of practices and thus introduces a 'critical opening' that harbours the potential for both personal and organizational transformation. We conclude by highlighting the potential of a nuanced understanding of parrhesia for studying 'critical practices' more generally.
Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the interplay of mediating technologies and... more
Building on research on organizational transparency and surveillance, mediated visibility and Foucauldian dispositional analytics, we develop the concept of transparency matrices for studying the interplay of mediating technologies and normative arrangements in the formation of transparency as a heterogeneous regime of visibility. Using the emerging and controversial social credit system in China as a critical case, we make two contributions. First, we enrich the conceptual vocabulary for the study of transparency as a dynamic multiplicity with varying power effects in different contexts, challenging in this way universalizing and otherwise reductive notions of transparency. Second, by emphasizing the operation of several coexisting matrices we provide a novel way of approaching the 'post panoptic' condition which can account not only for the power effects of different modalities of transparency, but also for the instabilities and potential openings that are generated by their interplay. Transparency is heterogeneous, irreducible to a single reality and open to future becoming.
This paper situates organisational transparency in an agonistic space that is shaped by the interplay of 'mechanisms of power that adhere to a truth' and critical practices that come from below in a movement of 'not being governed like... more
This paper situates organisational transparency in an agonistic space that is shaped by the interplay of 'mechanisms of power that adhere to a truth' and critical practices that come from below in a movement of 'not being governed like that and at that cost' (Foucault, 2003: 265). This positioning involves an understanding of transparency as a practice that is historically contingent and multiple, and thus negotiable and contested. By illustrating the entanglement of 'power through transparency' and 'counter-transparency' with reference to the example of Edward Snowden's whistleblowing, the paper contributes to the critique of transparency and to debates on the use of Foucauldian concepts in post-panoptic contexts of organising. By introducing the notion of 'counter-transparency', the paper expands the conceptual vocabulary for understanding the politics and ethics of managing and organising visibility.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
... approaches: Orthodox management and organization studies ('functional approach'), CriticalManagement Studies ('socio ... allows for analysing specific aspects or dimensions of organizational... more
... approaches: Orthodox management and organization studies ('functional approach'), CriticalManagement Studies ('socio ... allows for analysing specific aspects or dimensions of organizational reality and ... by one of the authors (Diefenbach) on a change management process in a ...
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... on the way of being re-imagined as an entrepreneur of a special kind: as a strange hybrid, a mixture between employee and entrepreneur an entreployee, as this monstrosity has been called by the sociologists Voß and Pongratz... more
... on the way of being re-imagined as an entrepreneur of a special kind: as a strange hybrid, a mixture between employee and entrepreneur an entreployee, as this monstrosity has been called by the sociologists Voß and Pongratz (2003). Entrepreneurs who form an ...
... verweisen. Die Unterscheidung von weichen und harten (Erfolgs-)Faktoren konnte sich im Managementdiskurs vor al-lem im Kontext der Unternehmenskulturdiskussion etablieren (vgl. zB Peters/Waterman 1982). Sie findet ...
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ABSTRACT
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ABSTRACT Instead of essentializing and defining what CSR “is”, we analyze CSR as a political discourse in which different actors struggle to fill the empty shell of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with a legitimate interpretation.... more
ABSTRACT Instead of essentializing and defining what CSR “is”, we analyze CSR as a political discourse in which different actors struggle to fill the empty shell of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with a legitimate interpretation. In this paper we take the current ...
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In this paper, we argue that competition has to be seen as a cultural phenomenon. In advanced capitalist societies the phenomenon of competition has takeit a specific form, which we call perverted competition. We both problematize this... more
In this paper, we argue that competition has to be seen as a cultural phenomenon. In advanced capitalist societies the phenomenon of competition has takeit a specific form, which we call perverted competition. We both problematize this concept and discuss some of the consequences associated with it. We argue that the concept of perverted competition distorts the social relations both within and between organizations in a pervasive way. The challenge of critical thinking in management and organization theory is both to explore the destructive consequences of perverted competition and to engage in a counter discourse which explores the possibilities of constructive relations.
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Page 1. Deconstructing The Iron Cagetowards an Aesthetic of Folding RICHARD WEISKOPF* This essay develops elements of an aesthetic of folding. It uses the metaphor of the fold as a moving concept, which allows overcoming ...
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This paper investigates algorithmic decision-making and data-driven profiling as particular ways of producing truth by which "(wo)men govern themselves and others." It starts with problematizing some of the fundamental assumptions on... more
This paper investigates algorithmic decision-making and data-driven profiling as particular ways of producing truth by which "(wo)men govern themselves and others." It starts with problematizing some of the fundamental assumptions on which algorithmic decision-making relies. It then conceptualizes profiling as a "spectrogenic process" in which abstractions are produced that haunt the world, thereby generating material effects of sorting people in/out from a distance. In the final section, the paper discusses emerging forms of governance and the modes of subjectification associated with the current condition of multiple profiling machines. Paradoxically, in the context of post-truth, these forms produce a hyper-facticity that governs by circumventing reflexivity, grounding government in computational truth, and substituting ethico-political decisions by calculations.
This paper investigates algorithmic decision-making and data-driven profiling as particular ways of producing truth by which "(wo)men govern themselves and others." It starts with problematizing some of the fundamental assumptions on... more
This paper investigates algorithmic decision-making and data-driven profiling as particular ways of producing truth by which "(wo)men govern themselves and others." It starts with problematizing some of the fundamental assumptions on which algorithmic decision-making relies. It then conceptualizes profiling as a "spectrogenic process" in which abstractions are produced that haunt the world, thereby generating material effects of sorting people in/out from a distance. In the final section, the paper discusses emerging forms of governance and the modes of subjectification associated with the current condition of multiple profiling machines. Paradoxically, in the context of post-truth, these forms produce a hyper-facticity that governs by circumventing reflexivity, grounding government in computational truth, and substituting ethico-political decisions by calculations.
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This paper looks at the role of 'truth-telling' in the context of modern organizations and governance using examples of 'whistleblowing'. Truth-telling can be organized in very different ways. It can be demanded 'from above' and... more
This paper looks at the role of 'truth-telling' in the context of modern organizations and governance using examples of 'whistleblowing'. Truth-telling can be organized in very different ways. It can be demanded 'from above' and constitute a truth-obligation that intensifies power-relations; but it can also constitute a critical practice that challenges established truths and relations of power. While modern organizations dispel truth-telling in the sense of parrhēsia through a variety of mechanisms, the Snowden example shows that even in strictly regulated organizational complexes, truth-telling can become a disruptive force that opens a space for potential transformation and counter-conduct. The paper contributes to and is inspired by what Foucault (2014b) calls an 'ethnological perspective' on truth-telling, that is, the study of truth-telling as a social practice that works 'as weapon in relationships between individuals, … as a means of modifying relationship of power among those who speak, and finally as an element within an institutional structure' (28).