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What killed Moritz Erhardt?: internships and the cultural dangers of “positive” ideas

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What killed Moritz Erhardt? internships and the cultural dangers of “positive” ideas. / Costea, Bogdan; Watt, Peter; Amiridis, Konstantinos.
In: tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2015, p. 375-389.

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Costea B, Watt P, Amiridis K. What killed Moritz Erhardt? internships and the cultural dangers of “positive” ideas. tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique. 2015;13(2):375-389. doi: 10.31269/triplec.v13i2.611

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Costea, Bogdan ; Watt, Peter ; Amiridis, Konstantinos. / What killed Moritz Erhardt? internships and the cultural dangers of “positive” ideas. In: tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique. 2015 ; Vol. 13, No. 2. pp. 375-389.

Bibtex

@article{e25a1ddae77f4dd685ea98f7e29b0929,
title = "What killed Moritz Erhardt?: internships and the cultural dangers of “positive” ideas",
abstract = "Moritz Erhardt{\textquoteright}s tragic death as an intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in August 2013 provides an illustration of the cultural intensity and complexity that has come to imbue internships in higher education degree schemes. We offer an analysis of internships as part of a wider process of dissemination and proliferation of managerial vocabularies and images that underpin certain hyper-performative practices that permeate the powerful cultures stimulated by and sustained in many organizations. We analyze the cultural ground from which such practices might be seen to arise and present an interpretation of how certain “positive” themes and motifs—such as “potentiality,” “self-expression,” or “self-realization”—can become dangerous. These categories become dangerous once they are constituted as ideal measures of an unattainable level of performativity which can then become destabilizing and disorienting for any individual{\textquoteright}s sense of self. In this sense, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature investigating the significance of internships in the new cultures of work characterizing the broader context of neoliberalism.",
keywords = "internships, management, performativity, employability, self-actualization, self-realization, potential, worl culture, soft capitalism",
author = "Bogdan Costea and Peter Watt and Konstantinos Amiridis",
year = "2015",
doi = "10.31269/triplec.v13i2.611",
language = "English",
volume = "13",
pages = "375--389",
journal = "tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique",
issn = "1726-670X",
publisher = "Unified Theory of Information Research Group",
number = "2",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - What killed Moritz Erhardt?

T2 - internships and the cultural dangers of “positive” ideas

AU - Costea, Bogdan

AU - Watt, Peter

AU - Amiridis, Konstantinos

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Moritz Erhardt’s tragic death as an intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in August 2013 provides an illustration of the cultural intensity and complexity that has come to imbue internships in higher education degree schemes. We offer an analysis of internships as part of a wider process of dissemination and proliferation of managerial vocabularies and images that underpin certain hyper-performative practices that permeate the powerful cultures stimulated by and sustained in many organizations. We analyze the cultural ground from which such practices might be seen to arise and present an interpretation of how certain “positive” themes and motifs—such as “potentiality,” “self-expression,” or “self-realization”—can become dangerous. These categories become dangerous once they are constituted as ideal measures of an unattainable level of performativity which can then become destabilizing and disorienting for any individual’s sense of self. In this sense, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature investigating the significance of internships in the new cultures of work characterizing the broader context of neoliberalism.

AB - Moritz Erhardt’s tragic death as an intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in August 2013 provides an illustration of the cultural intensity and complexity that has come to imbue internships in higher education degree schemes. We offer an analysis of internships as part of a wider process of dissemination and proliferation of managerial vocabularies and images that underpin certain hyper-performative practices that permeate the powerful cultures stimulated by and sustained in many organizations. We analyze the cultural ground from which such practices might be seen to arise and present an interpretation of how certain “positive” themes and motifs—such as “potentiality,” “self-expression,” or “self-realization”—can become dangerous. These categories become dangerous once they are constituted as ideal measures of an unattainable level of performativity which can then become destabilizing and disorienting for any individual’s sense of self. In this sense, the paper contributes to the growing body of literature investigating the significance of internships in the new cultures of work characterizing the broader context of neoliberalism.

KW - internships

KW - management

KW - performativity

KW - employability

KW - self-actualization

KW - self-realization

KW - potential

KW - worl culture

KW - soft capitalism

U2 - 10.31269/triplec.v13i2.611

DO - 10.31269/triplec.v13i2.611

M3 - Journal article

VL - 13

SP - 375

EP - 389

JO - tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique

JF - tripleC: Communication, Capitalism and Critique

SN - 1726-670X

IS - 2

ER -