Flexibility

This chapter explores the regime of flexibility as a neoliberal instantiation of freedom in relation to work, focusing in particular on its perverse effects. Flexibility constructs an individualistic social formation by dismantling collective institutions, particularly unions, and empowering individual employees through a menu of rights and norms. Moreover, the decollectivizing and individualizing modes of flexibility compel and reward a spirit of self-entrepreneurialism and adaptability. Rather than the flexible worker taking control of work, the chapter argues that work has enveloped the life of the flexible worker and created a subject more committed than ever to devoting his or her energies to its demands, which in turn imperils non-monetary activities, such as leisure, care, and community service.