“Lost in the crowd”: the politics of (in)visibility in neoliberal becoming

What the paper says

Purpose How do enterprising subjects experience (in)visibility in their projects of the self, at what costs and with what effects? Theorizing invisibility/imperceptibility as a constant threat to one’s sense of self, existence and survival within neoliberal governmentality, this study examines self-(in)visibilization among Indian Information Technology employees. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on an analysis of semi-structured interviews with Indian Information Technology workers. Analytically, we follow the “thinking with theory” methodology, which involves an abductive approach to generate novel insights. Findings Our analysis shows that enterprising subjects experienced fourfold threats of invisibility/imperceptibility – exclusion, obsolescence, managerial disfavours and psychic incoherence – which led them to visibilize themselves as indispensable, continuously upgraded, sycophantic and coherent subjects. However, such self-visibilization also produced its traps and challenges, including living with existential insecurity and being caught in the impermanence of visibility, the oppressive double bind of visibility, and gendered differences. Employees negotiated these contradictions through continuous revisibilization, strategic (in)visibility or enacting multiple visibilities. Originality/value This paper uniquely theorizes and illustrates the politics of (in)visibility within neoliberalism, which involves a constant negotiation of the simultaneous desirable consequence of recognition (security and growth), weighed against the undesirable consequence of that same recognition (exploitation and intensification). This inescapable trade-off constitutes the oppressive double bind of visibility at the core of neoliberal self-constitution.