Citation

Molé NJ. Am. Ethnol. 2008; 35(2): 189-210.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1548-1425.2008.00030.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this article, I examine the codification of an Italian work-related illness caused by mobbing, a type of psychological harassment that emerged at the moment neoliberal policies transformed Italy's historically protectionist labor market. I trace how the medicalization of mobbing has expanded workers’ access to compensation, resources, and discursive tools for criticizing neoliberal labor conditions, even as it has produced new structures of surveillance. I unravel the neoliberal politics of a state that protects workers’ health yet governs worker–citizens through an apparatus of medical experts. I find that workers’ labor problems are experienced and managed as bodily problems in ways important to remaking Italian citizenship. [neoliberalism, state, labor, biopolitics, citizenship, bodies, Italy]