Corporate Mindfulness Culture and Neoliberalism

Abstract

Corporate mindfulness is the favorite labor management technique of the neoliberal period. The formalized packaging of corporate mindfulness began in the late 1970s but was built on a long tradition of attempts to hack the minds of workers in the United States. What distinguishes these previous attempts from corporate mindfulness is the strong ideological connection between corporate mindfulness and neoliberalism, the ideological operant of this modern stage of capitalism. This research establishes and explores that connection and the contradictions wrought by it, by examining the ways in which workers’ stress, anxieties, and complaints are elided and workers are instead subjected to the directed introspection of corporate mindfulness programs and further socialized to understand the workplace as community. JEL Classification: B52, Z12, N00