Enterprising Self-Identity and Earnings Inequality

• In Event: 4255 - Section on Economic Sociology Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 5. Income Inequality and Well-being

Abstract

Social theorists inspired by Foucault suggest that an enterprising self, or “neoliberal” subjectivity, not only legitimates economic inequality, but also enlarges it. It is theorized that those who internalize and act-out the economic theory of individual as ‘an entrepreneur of himself’ will be more productive, or at least make stronger claims as to their productivity, at work and receive correspondingly greater economic rewards. I provide a first quantitative test of this theory. I operationalize an entrepreneurial self-identity using 15 questions indicating an orientation to self-mastery and self-flexibility asked of a recent, nationally-representative panel of US working-age adults, MidLife Development in the United States (MIDUS). Initial models find that variation in this self-identity helps account for differentials in earnings observed between and within occupations in the contemporary United States. Developing relational and feminist theories of earnings inequality, I argue that intrapersonal emotional work on the self is a part of claiming, if not generating, economic value at work. In doing so, I contribute to a nascent ‘‘new’ sociology of wages’, that emphasizes the reciprocal, social construction of identity and inequality.

Author

• Sophie Clare Moullin, Princeton University