Sociology of individual resistance: Research perspective of a practice of (de)subjectivation

Abstract Sociology of individual resistance presents a research perspective that examines power through resistance by acting individuals. To this end, paradigms of governmentality studies and subjectivation research are combined and enriched by perspectives of the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) and an analysis of social patterns of interpretation. The analysis of social patterns of interpretation and SKAD are used in this article to shed light on processes of academic (de)subjectivation in the German university landscape as a result of the individual resistance of scientists. In a first step, entrepreneurial and managerial forms of subjectivation are reconstructed from a New Public Management (NPM) discourse. Subsequently, 25 scientists are confronted with the forms of subjectivation of the management discourse in a guided interview at a German university, and modes of subjectivation are derived from social patterns of interpretation. Finally, the modes of subjectivation of the interviewed scientists are contrasted with forms of subjectivation of the NPM discourse, whereby ruptures and a practice of de-subjectivation become visible.