Paper short abstract:

This paper puts the anthropology of ethics into dialogue with that of the moral economy, through the study of German business consultants. It explains why consultants see their job as work on themselves, and which tensions arise from this view. It argues that self-care results from a specific moral economy.

Paper long abstract:

The growing anthropology of everyday ethics has largely developed without engaging with the established literature on the moral economy. Following recent work by Fassin and Robbins, this paper puts these two bodies of literature into dialogue with one another, through the ethnographic study of German business consultants. It shows how business consultants are encouraged to consider that ultimately the telos of their activity is to work on themselves. Instead of arising naturally, the goal of working on the self is created through a series of corporate technologies, which include personality tests, constant feedback and regular training sessions. The paper goes on to show that such work on the self regularly clashes with the consultants' parallel role of being commodities, i.e. of serving the ends of their employer and of being relatively powerless in defining the criteria of legitimate self care. As a result, consultants frequently adopt either a cynical attitude towards their jobs, or they look for work elsewhere, where care for the self may be better served. The paper argues that care for the self should not be considered to precede moral values, but that it is the result of a specific moral economy - one that is increasingly prevalent in contemporary capitalism.