The new paternalism? The workplace as a place to work—and to live

Abstract

This study aims to better understand the modern evolution of the workplace not only as a place to work but also increasingly as a place to live. Current research largely excludes the instrumental aspects of this blurring of personal and professional spheres at work, as manifested in an intentional dissolution of the boundaries between work and non-work activities. To understand the meaning and implications of these new workplaces, which rely on a central tension between care and control and tend to reinterpret paternalism as an organizing principle, this study develops a conceptual framework derived from Michel Foucault’s concept of pastoral power. This framework helps make sense of a caring mode of power that marks modern organizations. The application of this framework—using a qualitative case study of a French company’s home-like working environment—suggests a processual and constructivist conceptualization of these workplaces as a manifestation of pastoral power, embedded in a broader governmentality strategy. It emphasizes the material and discursive construction of the workplace as a place to live and highlights the emergence of neo-paternalism as a new form of care and control. This critical perspective informs discussion on the implications of this caring mode of control for workers, in a hopeful call to stay alert to modern capitalist intrigues.