Speaker:   Dr. Edouard Pignot

Abstract:   In new work practices, managerial control has turned from direct supervision to more subtle forms relying on voluntary engagement. This paper aims at addressing the need for more materialized, embodied and temporalized view of control to counterbalance purely virtual and technologically-enabled approaches. To do so, I key into ontological discussions for addressing the underexplored materiality of ideological control. The contribution of this paper is to draw on psychoanalytically-informed, post-Marxist discourse theory (especially Althusser, the Essex school and Butler) to suggest that much is to be gained in the study of normative control by addressing the materiality of the signifier. This conceptual clarification is needed to engage properly with issues of persuasion, consent, and discursive manipulation involved in new work practices such as algorithmic management. 

Short Bio:   Dr. Edouard Pignot is Assistant Professor in Information and Organization at Münster University, Germany. After studying Literature at Paris Sorbonne University, Management at EM Lyon Business School and Social Psychology at The London School of Economics and Political Science, he obtained a PhD from The University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. He has been Visiting Scholar at Stern School of Business, New York University. His research is broadly concerned with the relationship between information technologies and social and organizational change. He is specifically interested in the design, acceptance and diffusion of computer games and blockchain technologies.