Venture Labor| Discourses of Control and Free Agency: Generating Self-Blame among Unemployed Workers

Authors

  • Ofer Sharone University of Massachusetts Amherst

Keywords:

unemployment, self-help discourses, hiring, individualism

Abstract

I explore how the culture of free agency and self-entrepreneurship discussed in Neff’s Venture Labor manifests itself among unemployed professionals. My research into the support discourses unemployed white-collar workers encounter in their job searches reveals an important insight into the cultural construction of labor. To take control of one’s career means believing that external barriers do not matter and that one can find one’s dream job so long as one follows one’s passions. Because success in one’s job search is perceived as depending on the projection of an authentic and passionate self, the experience of labor market difficulties generates devastating self-blame.

Author Biography

Ofer Sharone, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Ofer Sharone is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  Sharone's research focuses on job searching, career transitions and unemployment.  His recently published book, Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching and Unemployment Experiences (University of Chicago Press), compares the job searching and unemployment experiences of white-collar workers in Israel and the United States and won the Zelizer Award for best book in Economic Sociology, and the Weber Award for best book in Organizations, Occupation, Work.   Sharone is the founder of the Institute for Career Transitions-an organization focused on supporting long-term unemployed workers, and researching the best strategies for supporting this group.  His innovative research has received wide attention from national media and policymakers.  Sharone holds a BA in economics from the University of Illinois; a JD from Harvard Law School; and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.  Prior to his current position Sharone was on faculty at the MIT Sloan School of Management. 

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Published

2017-05-09

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Forum

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