Suicide Voices: Neoliberal Globalisation and Workplace Trauma

21世纪初，法国经历了被国际媒体称为职场自杀“流行病”的现象，选择在工作中或因为工作而自杀的工人数量空前。自2000年以来，法国的工作场所自杀率增加了70%，仅次于日本，位居世界第二。法国的职场自杀是一种日益上升的国际现象的一部分，德国、西班牙、澳大利亚、中国和日本的案例都得到了广泛报道。最近法国自杀事件的特点是越来越多的文本出现，有自杀倾向的人试图通过这些文本来描述自己的经历，这些经历促使他们结束了自己的生命。该奖学金的目的是通过对见证材料的仔细阅读，来检验这些“自杀的声音”在新自由主义全球化的历史关头可以告诉我们什么关于人类劳动的生活条件。该奖学金对2005年至2015年期间三家法国公司的82起自杀案件的证词进行了分析：电信跨国公司Orange；汽车制造商雷诺；以及法国邮政服务公司La Poste。这些公司中的每一家都经历了员工在重组时的急性“自杀浪潮”，以回应与新自由主义相关的外部经济需求。这项研究调查了大量的信件、录音、电子邮件、新闻声明和法律文件，这些都是自杀者写给私人和公众的。虽然一些广为宣传的案件的证词已由媒体发表，但全部的证词材料尚未受到学术审查。该奖学金将自杀叙事作为一种独特的见证模式进行研究，这种模式可以揭示当代新自由主义和全球化工作场所中经济学的主观体验。该研究将自杀证词定位在日常和极端之间的结合点。这些见证在融入日常生活的同时，也揭示了日常工作场所是如何转变为人类极端痛苦的场所的。工作或工作条件为什么以及如何促使一些人结束自己的生命？这些证言所证明的社会条件是什么？为什么自杀被认为是对日常工作经历的一种反应？该奖学金旨在通过结合来自文学（证词研究）、社会科学奖学金和公共卫生的创新理论和方法见解，将艺术和人文学科的观点带入我们对关键社会和公共卫生现象的理解。在这项研究金的十八个月期间，寻求三个主要目标。第一个目标是研究自杀叙事作为一种证词形式，可以将个人创伤转化为公共意义，并阐明当代历史节点上的劳动条件。这项研究旨在为“自上而下”的经济学理论提供一个重要的替代方案，这些理论往往忽视了工作的经验和日常维度。第二个目标是检查工作场所自杀的历史特定条件，并询问为什么与早期的经济阶段相比，新自由主义加剧了工作场所的自杀倾向。第三个目标是考虑自杀的当代意义，并询问工作场所自杀是否构成了一种新的激进的抗议模式。在多大程度上，自杀源于集体表达的失败，以及个人对可能被社会表达的不满的重新具体化？从自杀证词中叙述的奇异和极端经历的有利位置出发，该奖学金旨在调查新自由主义经济学在当代历史关头对工作场所的人类和社会影响。

France, during the 2000s, experienced what the international media has described as an 'epidemic' of workplace suicides with unprecedented numbers of workers choosing to kill themselves in work or because of work. With a 70% increase in recorded cases since 2000, France today has the second highest rate of workplace suicides in the world after Japan. French workplace suicides are part of a rising international phenomenon with well-publicised cases in Germany, Spain, Australia, China and Japan. Recent French suicides have been marked by an intensified production of texts through which suicidal individuals have sought to describe for themselves the experiences that have pushed them to take their own lives. The purpose of the fellowship is to examine, through a close reading of testimonial material, what these 'suicide voices' can tell us about the lived conditions of human labour in the historical juncture of neoliberal globalisation. The fellowship undertakes an analysis of a corpus of testimonies linked to 82 suicide cases within three French companies during the period 2005 to 2015: telecommunications multinational, Orange; car manufacturer, Renault; and French postal services, La Poste. Each of these companies experienced an acute 'suicide wave' amongst its employees at a time of restructuring in response to the external economic imperatives linked to neoliberalism. The research examines an extensive corpus of letters, audio recordings, e-mails, press statements and legal documents written by suicidal individuals and intended for both private and public audiences. Whilst testimonies in a number of well-publicised cases have been published by the media, the full corpus of testimonial material has not yet been subject to academic scrutiny.The fellowship examines suicide narratives as a unique testimonial mode that can shed light on subjective experiences of economics in the contemporary neoliberal and globalised workplace. The research locates suicide testimonies at a juncture between the everyday and the extreme. Whilst embedded in everyday life, these testimonies also reveal how the quotidian workplace can be transformed into a site of extreme human suffering. Why and how does work or conditions of work push some individuals to take their own lives? What are the social conditions to which these testimonies bear witness? Why is self-killing envisioned as a response to everyday experiences of work?The fellowship aims to bring an arts and humanities perspective to bear on our understanding of a critical social and public health phenomenon by combining innovative theoretical and methodological insights from literature (testimony studies), social sciences scholarship and public health.Three principal objectives are sought during the eighteen months of this fellowship. A first objective is to examine suicide narratives as a form of testimony that can transform personal trauma into public meaning and shed light on the conditions of labour in the contemporary historical juncture. The research aims to provide a critical alternative to 'top-down' theories of economics that often overlook experiential and quotidian dimensions of work. A second objective is to examine the historically-specific conditions of workplace suicides and ask why neoliberalism, as compared with earlier economic phases, has exacerbated suicidal tendencies in the workplace. A third objective is to consider the contemporary significance of suicide and ask whether workplace suicides constitute a new and radical mode of protest. To what extent do suicides stem from a failure of collective representation and a re-embodiment by the individual of grievances that might otherwise be given social expression? From the vantage point of the singular and extreme experiences narrated in suicide testimonies, the fellowship aims to investigate the human and social effects of neoliberal economics in the workplace within the contemporary historical juncture.