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Susanne Ekman

External lecturer , MA in anthropology
Susanne Ekman

Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy

Porcelænshaven 18A
DK-2000 Frederiksberg
Tel.: +45 3815 2193
Cell phone: +45 2614 2363
Fax:+45 3815 3635
E-mail: se.lpf@cbs.dk



Link to this homepage: uk.cbs.dk/staff/ekman


I am interested in the paradoxical consequences of the increased freedom, individualization and complexity in late modernity – especially with regards to the working life of young knowledge workers and to the function of management.
My PhD project looks into the consequences of the widespread expectations among young knowledge workers that their job provide them personal meaning and existential growth. Through anthropological field work and discourse analysis, I explore the conditions which the strong focus on optimization, self actualization and authenticity establish for both employees and managers.
When does this ‘welfare discourse’ serve as a constructive drive? When is it a burdening demand? And when burdening, are there legitimate ways to refuse it? How does this cultural trend influence the interplay between managers and employees, and what is the effect of the Danish flexicurity model on these patterns?
The project is based on a specific reading of Foucault which concentrates on his late concepts such as ‘technologies of the self’ and ‘freedom practices’. Furthermore, I use new Foucault readings made by feminists who attempt to explore parts of Foucault’s writing which concerned itself with experience and body as possible sites for change and resistance. My intention with this approach to Foucault is to apply a sophisticated understanding of the relation between freedom practices and cultural dispositions when I engage with my empirical field.
The project is also meant as a contribution to recent discussions about capitalism and its consequences for subjectivity, affect, exploitation and freedom.

Primary research areas

  • Late modernity: individualization, functional differentiation, and vulnerability (Bauman, Beck, Giddens etc.)
  • Critique of capitalism
  • Critical Management Studies
  • Discourse, affect, and practices of freedom
  • Creative knowledge workers
  • Management – employee interaction
  • Ethnography of organizations
  • Late Foucault
  • Utopias


Last updated by Anje Schmidt 17/08/2010