This paper interrogates the phenomenon of boredom at work by considering Ernst Jünger’s
potential contribution. We contend that Jünger offers an important yet overlooked alternative to
the dominant perspectives of boredom in Management and Organization Studies (MOS), which
are largely composed of ‘simple’ psychological diagnoses and managerial prescriptions. Such
studies largely understand boredom as a localised experience at work which can be overcome by
targeted managerial prescriptions, techniques and interventions. In contrast we show how Jünger
understands boredom from a ‘profound’ perspective as a central feature of modernity. This is
premised on Jünger’s broader critique of the bourgeois values that define 20th and 21st century
managerial work and organization. Jünger’s cultural-historical perspective is therefore aligned to
the discrete field of Boredom Studies. By addressing how Jünger understands ‘work’ as the defining
feature of the modern age, his critique situates the phenomenon of boredom at work within the
broader social, institutional and cultural order of the 21st Century. While Jünger does not set
out to provide a theory of boredom as such, we reconstruct such a theory through an exegesis
of his writing on ‘work’ and ‘danger’. This reveals boredom and danger as phenomenologically
intertwined concepts, which is an understanding of boredom that has not been considered in
MOS or Boredom Studies. It is through this, we argue, that Jünger’s conception of work holds the
potential for a powerful critique and understanding of boredom at work under the contemporary
regime of neoliberal managerialism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:88185 |
| Date | 21 November 2023 |
| Creators | Watt, Peter, Weibull, Fredrik |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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