Abstract
The question we wish to deal with in this paper is: how can Henry’s phenomenology, based on a totally renewed way of understanding human being, a Self finding its dynamic in the immanence of its affective life, help us introduce a renewed critical approach toward modern ‘e-conomy’ and the virtual organizations of human labour it structures? Relying on Michel Henry, the difficulties will in fact not only appear as difficulties to relate to the life-world, to interpret, to socialize, to exercise power, to face abstraction,… but they will appear as the hindrance of one’s praxis, its real, active, individual, subjective and intersubjective life. To support this argument we shall be studying those of Henry’s works which will enable us to ground our critical analysis. This enables a critical and phenomenological perspective on ITreference paradigms whereby exchanges are reduced to ‘information’ (Simon) and ‘communication’ (Wiener) such as they operate in the ‘virtual organisations’ of Davidow, Malone, Davenport, Handy, etc. Written by one of us who has been a participant observer during six months in a global company, a reflexive narrative is the starting point for introducing several insights related to the experienced hindrance of one’s life dynamism and energy. This critical approach leads to a political theory of potentialization and capacitation which is close to Hilary Putnam’s intuitions.