Rickard Grassman

Dissociative Economy: on the Virtualization of Knowledge Work Rickard Grassman

This book is a philosophical journey into what is here described as a dissociative economy, whereby the battle-lines between capital and labour, are currently being drawn in and through our very identities themselves. Whilst predominantly theoretical, and owing much to Critical theory and the teachings of Jacques Lacan, the book nevertheless grapples with three diverse empirical cases from our evermore prevailing and broadly defined knowledge economy. In these empirical glimpses the industries of investment banking, information technology and management consulting are duly represented in and with interviews derived from the Google Corporation, Lehman Brothers and management consulting. The empirical accounts are used to render visible the theoretical contributions to the fields of subjectivity, ideology, power, resistance and virtuality. By looking at a rather timely and specific range of work-life identities, yet at the same time elaborating these accounts in light of the fundamental question on identity that has tickled the human intellect since time immemorial. My hope is to enter into a timeless dialogue and yet at the same time very much speak into our present.