Description
In the contemporary neoliberal order, productivity and efficiency have become central values across various work contexts, including international organizations. This environment is characterized by fierce competition as well as hopes for self-actualization and social prestige. Although proponents of practice theory have emphasized that practices of employees at international organizations are embodied, I note that the body has received short shift both theoretically and empirically. By building on the practice turn in IR, research on embodiment (by Bourdieu and others) and literature on affective capitalism, I research performance enhancing behaviour of IO workers as embodied practices of affective capitalism. I study the practices of IO workers in Vienna and Geneva using participant observation and in-depth biographical interviews.
Based on my research, I argue that subjects become affectively invested in working at international organizations through their hopes to make a difference in the world and to find purpose, but also through their desire for power and validation. Facing increasingly precarious temporary contracts and often long working hours, workers experience tensions and have to regulate their own expectations about their career progression. To stay resilient under these pressures, to maintain their affective investment and to enhance their own productivity and social capital, they engage in sports, go to therapy, or consume nutrition or substances. Such practices blur the boundary between personal advancement and the advancement of global objectives pursued by international organizations, which demonstrates that they do not constitute individual habits but can be understood as systematic practices of affective capitalism.
