Sublime

Alors qu’on pouvait jusqu’aux années 1990 (à condition d’en profiter) associer l’horizon de la modernisation avec les notions de progrès, d’émancipation, de richesse, de confort, de luxe même et, surtout, de rationalité, la furie de dérégulation, l’explosion des inégalités, l’abandon des solidarités l’ont peu à peu associé à celle de décision arbit

En 1985, dans un livre intitulé En sortir ou pas, Jacques Delors entonnait l’hymne de la « bataille économique joyeuse et sauvage ». Il y condamnait le système de protection sociale, jugé « rigide et démesuré ». Il exaltait « des réalités aussi souveraines et immuables que des étoiles dans la nuit » : la compétition, l’entreprise et le marché. Il a

These are the scales of modern human networks, and it’s Dunbar’s number multiplied by millions. In these large-scale communities, standards and self-governance can’t be maintained by people simply running around and talking to each other. Instead, the builders of these networked products must create features that nudge the interactions in the right

The self, and its project, led a new generation to accept the contradiction of capitalism. The contradiction of devoted work and consumer expressivism remained, but it was brought into a generative tension by a new form of management that used expressivism to renew and refuel the work ethic.

Antagonism is not now located externally, in the face-off between class blocs, but internally, in the psychology of the worker, who, as a worker, is interested in old-style class conflict, but, as someone with a pension fund, is also interested in maximizing the yield from his or her investments.

work. Innovation and entrepreneurship are venerated when the core value judgment of our practices or artifacts (even our person) is to be creative. Only in a dispositif that glorifies expressive creativity can disruption and insecurity (over routine and security) be embraced as a better way of being.

In their analysis of contemporary capitalism, Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello have pointed to the array of forces that esteem the individual who is constantly engaged, interfacing, interacting, communicating, responding, or processing within some telematic milieu.