Self as Enterprise

Peter Kelly is Deputy Head of School (Research and Innovation), School of Education, RMIT University, Australia. He is a social theorist and researcher specialising in youth studies, social theory and globalisation. Most recently he has worked in partnership with Mission Australia, a third sector organisation that operates a social enterprise training and employment program for marginalised, unemployed young people. The action learning project examined the organisational and identify practices that influence young people's experiences of this program. Kelly co-authored the book Working in Jamie's Kitchen: Salvation, Passion and Young Workers, which used the manufactured drama of the TV series to examine the ways in which marginalised young people are required to transform themselves to secure a precarious form of salvation in globalised labour markets. His work on the evolution of a 'professional identity' for Australian Football League footballers has also been published.

• Contents: From Kevin 07 to Kevin 24/7; New work ethics and the self as enterprise; After (a) method; Michel Foucault and the care of a self; Flexible capitalism and the Brazilianisation of work?; The spirit of 21st century capitalism; Better than sex, and toil and drudgery; Stress and the edge of chaos; The body, mind and soul of the self as enterprise; 24/7 and the problem of work-life balance; Conclusion: le laisser-faire, c’est fini; References; Index.

'From childhood we seem to be moulded for work, not play. Peter Kelly's new book shows some of the costs and consequences of aiming to be employable, and making our lives into careers. The Self as Enterprise is a compelling guide to the prison we have made, and the possibility of escape.' Martin Parker, University of Leicester School of Management, UK ’Provocative, eloquent and highly readable, this book will rearrange thinking about the ethics of work and the work of ethics. It shows how selfhood and society have been reconstituted as flexible capitalism and the flexible self coincide. It clarifies the intricate logics of current workplaces with their regular incantations about reinvention and their relentless invitations for us to be ever-new.’ Jane Kenway, Monash University, Australia