Consultants and Economic Power
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20042855 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sylvain Thine (Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Pages | 129-142 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Researching Elites and Power (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Springer International Publishing (PUBLISHER • SG) |
| DOI | 10.1007/978-3-030-45175-2_10 |
| OpenAlex | W3048563266 |
| ISBN | 9783030451752 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 24 |
The analysis of economic power is not confined to the study of its most prominent representatives; the directors. Economic power would not be effective without the involvement of intermediaries, whose importance is continuously growing; the consultants, service providers and other experts whose job it is to prescribe economic policies or management methods. The relatively labile term ‘consultant’ hides a plurality of situations, such as management consulting, information systems, recruitment, public relations, etc. In this chapter we illustrate how Geometric Data Analysis of prosopographic data, collected from Who’s Who in France and from professional directories, can be combined with an ethnographic study in order to explore what these various professions have in common, all of which imply the establishment of a paradoxical relationship of domination between the client and the provider. In contrast to the meritocratic discourse that is very important in the world of corporate counselling, the analysis shows that the consultants’ capacity for persuasion rests, above all, on inherited properties gained by proximity with the business world and consecrated through educational diplomas. By linking quantitative and ethnographic data, it is possible to examine the sociological foundation of the relationship of domination that is at the origin of the asymmetrical relationship between clients and service providers, which characterises consulting work
Business · Ethnography · Intermediary · Meritocracy · Persuasion · Political science · Public relations · Service provider · Sociology · Education, sociology, and vocational training · Engineering · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Sciences and Governance · Marketing
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |