ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the theoretical and empirical vantage points for the book that investigates how Lean operates in the real, corporeal, collective, and affective environments of health and social care work in Finland. The chapter introduces the key terminology of Lean, the subtext for its implementation in Finnish public service organisations, and discusses the roots of Lean in the modulations of capitalism and its current stage, biocapitalism. The chapter argues that the journey from Fordist capitalism to biocapitalism radically shifts the role of working bodies and minds in labour processes: in biocapitalism, qualities such as sociality, affectivity, and enthusiasm are transferred into the centre of the production process. The chapter discusses some of the gaps identified in previous research on Lean as well as its limitations, which the book aims to address with these questions: what happens to work when work processes become Leaned? How has gender become (or remained) part of the new management culture? How are affects and affections enacted, and how do various artefacts become essential actors in Lean training? The chapter ends with a brief introduction of the ethnographic fieldwork conducted for the book and an overview of the subsequent chapters.
