Introduction

Anthropologists confronted with abstract labour regimes have a wide variety of relevant bodies of literature to draw from. The writings by Spittler, for example, helpfully compare the work of peasants in Niger and Hungary to Tuareg pastoralism and work at McDonald’s. This allows him to define work as a goal-oriented activity marked by some degree of routine and longevity that constantly exceeds its own functionalist nature. The explicitly comparative study of work also permits a heuristically useful division of forms of workplace domination. Thus, Spittler divides workplace rule into that of the lord (‘Herr’), the master (‘Meister’) and the manager. Within the study of corporate forms, ethnographies frequently draw on Weber, who emphasized the role of bureaucracy in the exercise of state domination, describing it as rationalistic, in the sense of being rule-bound, impersonal and focused on means– ends relationships. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.