Abstract
While 'Thriving Together,' presumes the moral-normative necessity of prioritizing inclusion, we critically interrogate the institutional and temporal power dynamics that dictate who is permitted to thrive and at what human cost. In order to interrogate this issue, we draw upon Rosa’s theorization of the resonance/alienation dialectic in order to add phenomenological substance and moral-normative critique to questions around the inclusion/ exclusion dialectic in the employment relationship. Methodologically, we focus on an analysis of 1st-person accounts of Iranian employees, in Iran and in the UK in 2025-6, alongside a 3rd-person analysis of structural features of their political-economic locations. Through these analyses we contribute an outline of overlapping but variegated forms of cycles of exclusion which are linked to various modes of systemic appropriation, acceleration and activation (3A escalatory engines). This contingent inclusion stymies the respondents’ capacities for resonance. We argue that true thriving is fundamentally incompatible with either current political-economic agenda.