Profitable uncertainties

Corporate activity is often depicted as a quest for certainty, in an uncertain world. This talk challenges this idea by investigating how uncertainty that results in greater economic activity is created and sustained by German management consultants. Such “profitable uncertainty” is established in three main movements: Consultants postulate attractive potential worlds, hold that economic subjects are capable of making free decisions and insist that the subjects’ actions have an influence on bringing these worlds about. Consultants apply this logic to clients as much as to themselves, yet, it comes with an excess, that can lead to stasis in various ways. Apart from providing an insight into the heterodox nature of uncertainty, the talk foregrounds how the ethnographic study of freedom can contribute to that of corporate activity.