Social Philosophy (Philosophy)

St Paul's Conversion: The Aesthetic Organization of Labour

by Bent Meier Sørensen

This paper compares the Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio's two versions of the Conversion of Saint Paul... more This paper compares the Italian Renaissance painter Caravaggio's two versions of the Conversion of Saint Paul (1600/1601) with two modern models of organization. These comparisons show how organization is produced in art through 'aesthetic landscaping' (Gagliardi 2006), and in particular how these artistic reproductions convey certain images of the appropriate modern, entrepreneurial self and regimes of organization. The painting was originally commissioned by the Catholic Church, but it rejected the first and accepted the second version. The paper claims that this strategy strengthens the given organization of the Church and the Church's strategic influence on the believers that adore the painting. But this all comes with a price, namely, the production of a number of strict divisions: in the accepted version, Paul becomes a pure transcendent spirit. Isolated from his surroundings, his servant and his horse, he is cut off from the very event of conversion. The rejected version harbours radically different, transgressive images of subjectivity, collectivity and entrepreneurship. By identifying these images, the paper contributes to the development of a critical approach to organizational aesthetics.

FOUCAULT AND CAPITALIST RATIONALITY: A RECONSTRUCTION

by Ali Rizvi

Ali Rizvi (2006). FOUCAULT AND CAPITALIST RATIONALITY: A RECONSTRUCTION. Market Forces 1 (4):23-33.

The relation between the regimes of the accumulation of men and the accumulation of capital is problematised in... more
The relation between the regimes of the accumulation of men and the accumulation of capital is problematised in the works of Michel Foucault. The paper challenges the prevailing wisdom that the relation between these regimes is contingent. The fundamental question of the conditions of the possibility of relation between the two regimes is raised. It is argued that both regimes are primordially related. Focusing on the Foucauldian
analysis of the regime of the accumulation of men and its constituent elements an effort is made to thematize the primordial relation between the two regimes. It is shown that
freedom is the condition of the possibility of a primordial relation between the two regimes. It is explained why freedom plays such a fundamental role in making possible and sustaining a capitalist order. The dual role of freedom as a principle of diversity and a principle of management is stressed. It is argued that capitalism as an order is conditioned upon the production and reproduction of individuals and populations that are
simultaneously useful and free. It is also the condition of such an order that docility is produced without hampering utility. Freedom makes possible the enhancement of utility
without making it unmanageable.