Work, Sleep, Repeat

The Abstract Labour of German Management Consultants

Felix Stein (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

248 Seiten

2017
Bloomsbury Academic (Verlag)
978-1-350-02779-4 (ISBN)

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Work, Sleep, Repeat is a fascinating account of the work regime of German management consultants. Examining one of the most sought-after – and secretive – graduate professions, the book provides a first-hand account of the boardroom culture of Europe’s strongest economy. Analyzing how knowledge and power operate in this sector, Felix Stein explores a number of paradoxes. For example, while it is the job of management consultants to analyse the activities of other employees, they actually spend most of their time in luxurious seclusion away from them. In addition, despite having a strong sense of the importance of their work, consultants often find it difficult to explain to outsiders what it is they do. The book addresses these and other paradoxes by arguing that consultants are engaged in abstract labour. Anthropologists have long struggled with the question of how to describe contemporary work regimes which do not produce anything tangible. Stein demonstrates that elite work is predominantly abstract, in the fourfold sense that it is epistemically removed from the object of analysis, emotionally detached from it, several steps away from the assumed sources of economic value creation, and increasingly hard to grasp. In doing so, he offers new ways to think about white collar work and elites in the 21st century and establishes the notion of ‘abstract labour’ as a key category in social anthropology.

Felix Stein is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Edinburgh, UK

List of FiguresAcknowledgementsNote on the Use of German Terms ForewordIntroduction 1. Background: A Brief History of Management Consulting 2. Selling Speed: Capitalist Acceleration and Temporal Angst 3. Economies of Legitimacy 4. Absurdity and Abstract Labour 5. Selves and Commodities 6. Uncertainty at Work Conclusion: The Business of Critique BibliographyIndex

Erscheinungsdatum	05.10.2017
Reihe/Serie	LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	400 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Makrosoziologie
	Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Planung / Organisation
ISBN-10	1-350-02779-0 / 1350027790
ISBN-13	978-1-350-02779-4 / 9781350027794
Zustand	Neuware