The following is an extract from How Silicon Valley Unleashed Techno-Feudalism: The Making of the Digital Economy by Cédric Durand, now available from Verso Books.
If the “new spirit of capitalism” analyzed by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello had to be embodied in any one location, an obvious candidate would be the bright, modern buildings reserved for creatives at Silicon Valley’s tech giants. Google’s HQ sells us the dream with its yoga sessions, free restaurants, and twenty-four-hour gyms. It showcases the innocent and open world that the company aims to bring to fruition.
This type of workspace is a masterly illustration of the reorganization of subjectivities initiated by the “neoliberal epithumogenesis” identified by Frédéric Lordon:
The desire to find employment should no longer be merely a mediated desire for the goods that wages circuitously permit buying, but an intrinsic desire for the activity for its own sake . . . desires for happy labor, or, to borrow directly from its own vocabulary, desires for “fulfilment” and “self-realization” in and through work.
Promising that their “innovative Silicon Valley spirit is stronger than ever,” Google proposes “an environment where each individual can share their ideas with colleagues at any time, and seek their input.” And indeed, “taking care of Googlers” seems like an effective way of sparking innovation. Leaving plenty of room for virtuous cycles and the free play of complementarity and collaboration encourages the emergence of what, by definition, is still yet to be discovered.
Xavier Niel attempts to drive this same spirit of innovation-through-fun in the flexible offices and the chill zone of Station F, his…
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Auteur: Cédric Durand
