Gary Herrigel*
Roles and Rules: Ambiguity, Experimentation and
New Forms of Stakeholderism in Germany**
Abstract – A reified opposition between social cooperation (stakeholderism) and Neoliberal
market solutions paralyzes political and scientific debate on reform in Germany today. This
essay rejects that opposition by recasting the way in which each of the categories is under-
stood. Pressure to become more flexible in many areas of work and organizational life has not
given rise to a blanket embrace of “the market” on a local level. Instead, it has induced wide-
spread experimentation with alternative forms of workplace and firm governance that involve
continual and collaborative recomposition of stakeholder roles in and among firms and social
actors. In other words, stakeholder governance is not disintegrating or giving way to the mar-
ket in