"Anticipare e gestire": ideologia e aporie del discorso europeo sulle ristrutturazioni

"Anticipating and managing": Ideology and aporias of the European discourse on restructuring - The article examines the discourse relating to restructuring, as developed by the European Commission since the end of the 1990s and focuses on the concepts of "anticipation" and "restructuring". In the European texts and documents "anticipation" is used as an "inclusive concept", but no clear distinction is made between anticipating and managing. As a consequence, the concept of "anticipation" remains muddled and is hardly of any analytical use. Anticipation can only take place ex ante. In addition it requires not only forecast and foresight but also redundancies, i.e. the creation of reserves in a mid- and long-term perspective. But this clearly contradicts the short term horizon which the principle of the shareholder value implies. As regards the concept of "restructuring", the community discourse is characterised by a discursive strategy reversing the negative perceptions linked to restructuring by constructing a generic concept, which ultimately leads to a cognitive framework based on the "naturalisation" of economic change and competitiveness. The European discourse thus creates a "cognitive cage" which the actors are confined to. In this cage, "anticipation and managing" only play a symbolic role.

Keywords: Concepts, deconstruction, discourse, Europe, restructuring.

Bruno Cattero, "Anticipare e gestire": ideologia e aporie del discorso europeo sulle ristrutturazioni in "STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI " 2/2009, pp 173-195, DOI: 10.3280/SO2009-002009