Enterprise culture and the obsolescence of class - an SBRC seminar

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Time: 1.00pm - 2.00pm
Venue: Business School Room 0015, Kingston Hill campus, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7LB
Price: free
Speaker(s): Dr Sara Nadin

Abstract

This theoretical paper aims to provide an analysis of our much celebrated ‘enterprise culture' in order to help understand the neglect and stigmatisation of ‘social class' generally and by academia in particular. The creation of an ‘enterprise culture' championed by Thatcher in the late 70s and 80s was not just about re-imagining work in the wake of industrial decline, it was and remains an economic, political and moral project the broad aim of which was / is to shift the responsibilities of the state to the individual, an act of social engineering wholesomely reflected in the emergence of the ‘enterprising self'. Academia, itself a product of and shaped by broader social forces, has been complicit in this redefining of subjectivity, rendering certain paradigms of thought obsolete and redundant. We explore this shift in relation to dominant understandings of work, and how the central long-standing concern with the link between employment relations and economic performance has transmogrified into its current form, dominated as it is by managerialism, HRM and a concern for all things entrepreneurial.

About the speaker

Dr Sara Nadin is a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour at the University of Liverpool where she currently teaches courses on conflict management and business ethics. As both a Sociologist and Occupational Psychologist, Sara is interested in sociologically informed explanations / understandings of work based experiences, especially within the context of small firms and entrepreneurship. These themes are reflected in her publications which span the topics of HRM and the psychological contract, gender and entrepreneurship, informal entrepreneurship and qualitative approaches to research. Aswell as her on-going work on the Psychological Contract, Sara is currently working on ideas related to Austerity, economic in-equalities and in-work poverty.

She reviews for a variety of journals including: Employee Relations; International Journal of Management Reviews; Personnel Review; Journal of Occupational & Organisational Psychology; Human Relations; Women in Management Review; and for the Gender track for BAM conferences. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Management Decision.

For further information about this event:

Contact: Dr Hang Do
Email: H.Do@kingston.ac.uk