Giorgio Coratelli

In this article I propose a semiotic investigation of images of jobs. The aim is not to analyze the social representation of the job, but to explore if there remains a present-day image of the job, and what are its historical and social conditions of existence. The problem is to study the relation between social structure and the image of the job. First, following Foucault’s studies on disciplinary society, the relation between disciplinary society and the image of labour in the factory will be described. This is followed by an account of the problematic passage from disciplinary society to what Deleuze called a “society of control”. Giving particular consideration to Foucault’s theory of power/knowledge relations and Deleuze’s semiotic reading of this theory,the new social organization of jobs, activities and times will be investigated. Social structure is changing from disciplinary and striated space, such as the space of the factory, to the smooth space of dispersion, like the space of the market. The image of the job changes from the image of the workforce to the image of human capital. Finally, rethinking Foucault’s lectures on biopolitics, the relation between the market and hu- man capital will be analyzed. My hypothesis is that it is not possible to have an image of the job as human capital in the present: the concept of human capital coincides with the human being and its capability, but there is no longer any specific space for the market, given that the market permeates every space of life.