Entreprises, États et formes d'assujettissement dans les récits de science-fiction
Résumé
Relationships between firms and state regulations are important in the history of SF. The manner in which these relationships are represented is both a reflection of the fears and hopes they raise and a political and value-laden way in which to think about the contemporary world. The article distinguishes four main ways to present companies, as well as the forms of social domination they produce and their relations with States. Narratives of “business despite the State” exalt the entrepreneur as a creative subject fighting against bureaucratic or ideological forms of domination. A different form of narratives of “company with the State” are stories of synergy or collusion between the two institutions. When the story is one of the “company against the State”, the companies are carrying out the functions of state authorities that no longer function effectively. Their practices are radical, often harmful forms of domination of their employees that result in the segregation of urban and social spaces and the enclosure of the middle class. Finally, there are utopian stories of “alternative companies” that present anarchist and democratic perspectives of business.
Les représentations de l’entreprise, diverses et conflictuelles, qui circulent dans le monde social, trouvent une expression originale, chargée d’images et d’émotions, dans la littérature de science-fiction. Il s’agira dans cet article, par le biais de l’étude de ses récits, de saisir comment les hommes se représentent ce que l’entreprise fait aux sociétés et aux subjectivités, les espoirs ou les peurs que cela suscite.