‘You Willingly Tie Yourself to These Leashes’ Neoliberalism, Neoliberal Rationality, and the Corporate Workplace in Dave Eggers’ The Circle

Abstract

Eight and a half years after the global financial crisis, business is booming. "Hypergrowth" is the "new normal," corporations from Exxon Mobil to IBM are spreading their assets worldwide to maximise their profits, and the United States continues to lead the world in its relentless drive for economic growth and competition. But most people are still suffering the consequences of the financial crisis; human life and ecosystems are being destroyed by environmental catastrophes associated with climate change; and individuals face the requirement to perform as market actors in all spheres of life. These conditions are not natural, but the result of more than three decades of neoliberal thinking and policy: a belief that the market should be free to do as it likes. Many American writers have sought to capture the realities of this unfettered capitalism. Dave Eggers, in his 2013 novel The Circle, delivers a dark satire of contemporary technoculture in the workplace to convey how easily individuals become governed by neoliberal rationality, and he critiques the ease with which we relinquish our freedom, and our lives, to corporate control