Statement

‘the roots of opportunism lie in an outside-of-the-workplace socialisation marked by unexpected turns, perceptible shocks, permanent innovation, chronic instability. Opportunists are those who confront a flow of ever-interchangeable possibilities, making themselves available to the greater number of these, yielding to the nearest one, and then quickly swerving from one to another. This is a structural, sober, non-moralistic definition of opportunism. It is a question of a sensitivity sharpened by the changeable chances, a familiarity with the kaleidoscope of possibilities, an intimate relationship with the possible, no matter how vast.  In the post-Ford era mode of production, opportunism acquires a certain technical importance. It is the cognitive and behavioral reaction of the contemporary multitude to the fact that routine practices are no longer organised along uniform lines; instead they present a high level of unpredictability.  Now, it is precisely this ability to maneuver among abstract and interchangeable opportunities which constitutes professional quality in certain sectors of post-Fordist production, sectors where labour process is not regulated by a single particular goal, but by a class of equivalent possibilities to be specified one at a time… Opportunism gains in value as an indispensable resource whenever the concrete labour process is permeated by a diffuse ‘communicative action’..