Emotional Capital as a Neoliberal Strategy of Identity: Coaching Upper Middle Class Subjectivities in Poland

Th is article suggests that emotional capital can be treated as a neoliberal strategy of identity.Th e ethnographic research is based on work with a community of Polish coaches and their clients.Th e paper argues that the identity and the status of members of the upper middle class is built, not only through the accumulation of material goods and the creation of benefi cial social relations, but also by adopting lifestyle habits such us participating in coaching sessions, in order to attain self-awareness, emotional well-being and the ability to manage one's emotions.From my analytical perspective, coaching is seen as a materialisation of neoliberal technologies of governmentality, helping to reach and tweak the cognitive-emotional dispositions that make up a form of emotional capital.