Creating Capitalists: How Organizations Acculturate Consumers of Social Insurance

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Non-Profit Rationalization

Abstract

Institutions that originally promoted the collective welfare now train people to participate in a market as consumers. Using observations conducted of more than two years of meetings of organizations that serve older adults in New York City, I analyze how organizations acculturate constituents to the routines and practices that support a market logic in policies that originated from a logic of social insurance. Observations reveal how such organizations attempted to train seniors as consuming capitalists per neoliberal practices under the market logic. As consumers, older adults are expected to (1) make informed choices about medical insurance, (2) use technology to gather information, and (3) monitor statements for errors or fraud. I show how besides transferring labor and risk to individuals, the market logic has fostered opportunities for profit-seeking and malfeasance amongst providers. Observations also show how seniors and professionals resist the individualistic emphasis of the market logic with decision-making shortcuts that relied upon ties with friends and family. I discuss four possible checks against a market logic’s excesses: (1) reinvigorate the original logic underpinning social insurance, (2) mobilize caregivers to deploy logics based on professional ethics, (3) activate the logic of a “just” society, and (4) invoke a democratic logic to reflect wider interests. Empirically studying how organizations create capitalists helps us understand organizations’ roles in perpetuating taken-for-granted practices versus alternative actions.

Author

• Katherine K. Chen, City University of New York-City College and Graduate Center