1st Edition
Work, Sleep, Repeat The Abstract Labour of German Management Consultants
By Felix Stein
Copyright 2017
248 Pages
by
Routledge
248 Pages
by
Routledge
248 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
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... Read more
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
Biography
Felix Stein is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Edinburgh, UK
"With his powers of observation and his mastery of the research literature on technocratic elites, Stein has written an original and witty book that goes beyond its immediate subject matter to reflect on the nature of all work removed from obvious sources of economic value creation. - Times Literary Supplement “Bullshit jobs” (Graeber) or “abstract labour” (Marx)? Felix Stein’s highly original auto-ethnography among German management consultants settles for the second conceptual framework. He explores how they can work so hard without purpose or result before, at some risk to his own prospects, comparing the consultants to British social anthropologists. - Keith Hart, University of Pretoria, South Africa With his powers of observation and his mastery of the research literature on technocratic elites, Stein has written an original and witty book that goes beyond its immediate subject matter to reflect on the nature of all work removed from obvious sources of economic value creation. - Jonathan Benthall, Times Literary Supplement For those who are interested in what consultancy is about and in what consultants do and how they think about it, Work, Sleep, Repeat is an excellent place to start. - The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"
