Corporate mindfulness culture and neoliberalism

Wrenn, Mary V.

Abstract

Corporate mindfulness is the favorite labor management technique of the neoliberal period. The formalized packaging of corporate mindfulness began in the late 1970s but was built on a long tradition of attempts to hack the minds of workers in the United States. What distinguishes these previous attempts from corporate mindfulness is the strong ideological connection between corporate mindfulness and neoliberalism, the ideological operant of this modern stage of capitalism. This research establishes and explores that connection and the contradictions wrought by it, by examining the ways in which workers’ stress, anxieties, and complaints are elided and workers are instead subjected to the directed introspection of corporate mindfulness programs and further socialized to understand the workplace as community. JEL Classification: B52, Z12, N00

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 10, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jul 14, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-07
• Deposit Date: Jul 21, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 21, 2022
• Journal: Review of Radical Political Economics
• Print ISSN: 0486-6134
• Electronic ISSN: 1552-8502
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 153-170
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/04866134211063521
• Keywords: Articles, neoliberalism, institutions, emotions
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9703795
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/04866134211063521