Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgements; Note on the use of German terms; Introduction; Abstract labour, bureaucracy and corporate forms; Non-places as field sites; Structure of this book; Chapter 1 Background: A Brief History of Management Consulting; The beginnings of management consulting; Consolidation and growth; Management consulting in Germany; Conclusion; Chapter 2 Selling Speed: Capitalist Acceleration and Temporal Angst; Selling speed; A permanent state of exception; Temporal exemplars; Time management and temporal angst; Conclusion

Chapter 3 Economies of LegitimacyConsultants as outsiders; Two kinds of outsider knowledge; Consultants as insiders; Consultants as liminal beings; 'Superior' liminality; Conclusion; Chapter 4 Abstract Labour and the Absurd; Present abundance and expected dearth; Meet the team; Spreadsheet magic; Rituals of verification; Thinking through slides; Comic strips for the powerful; Abstract labour and autopoiesis; Project results and the absurd; Conclusion; Chapter 5 Selves and Commodities; Caveat: Why not focus on salaries?; Consulting as self-improvement; First limits to self-improvement

Consultants as commoditiesSelves and commodities; Feedback; Conclusion; Chapter 6 Uncertainty at Work; Gaps in the analyses; Potential worlds; Gaps in the subject; The presence of experts; Potential worlds II; Free employees in theory and practice; The partially influential employee; Consolations of optimistic pragmatism; Limits to profitable uncertainty; Conclusion; Conclusion: In the Business of Critique; Anthropology as abstract labour?; The business of critique; Conclusion; Notes; Introduction; Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Conclusion; Bibliography