Re-shaping work related subjectivity through technological, managerial and economic discourse(s) on the reorganization of office spaces and practices

The world of work has undergone significant changes under the influence of digitalization in recent decades. Online and offline spaces for office work have been restructured as worker’s relationships to the time/space of work have come to be mediated through various information technologies and re-organizations of office spaces and routines. As the meaning of (office) work came to be rearticulated, so did the subjectivities of those performing this work. This paper focuses on the way work-related subjectivity has been rearticulated through technological, managerial, and economic orders of discourse. The data for this study consist of interviews conducted with directors, managers and employees working in a selection of public and private enterprises. The interviews focus on practices and discourses related to the reorganization of office spaces and practices and on associated discourses related to (digital) competence. In this presentation, we will focus on the research question how the subjectivity of the digitally competent worker is being (re)articulated in office environments by actors working in public and private organizations. The analysis is based on a concept of discourse as a multi-dimensional performative and articulatory practice. By focusing on the way subjectivities of digitally competent workers are being re-articulated with specific subject positions, norms, values, practices, skills and competences, we will outline to what extent large-scale orders of discourses shape everyday practices and self-understandings in office work environments.