Best Practice

“Despite the significance of financialization in shaping global capitalism, its implementation and operationalization within corporations are often taken at face value. Scholars across disciplines have long recognized the need for an ethnographic account of management consulting to better understand how the cultural values of finance are translated into nonfinancial organizations. Kimberly Chong's ethnography of financialization in China is therefore compelling, insightful, and most welcome.” - Karen Ho, author of Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street

“Kimberly Chong provides a fascinating ethnography of the critical role that management consultants play in restructuring capitalist economic activity in China. Her book presents a convincing set of arguments both for how consultancy firms produce financialized subjects and why an ethical basis is needed for this work. It will provoke wide-ranging, interdisciplinary debates about how to assess financialization and its effects on everyday work.” - Lisa Rofel, coauthor of Fabricating Transnational Capitalism: A Collaborative Ethnography of Italian-Chinese Global Fashion

"In this well-written book, the author underscores for her readers how consultancy unfolds as a very crucial site for the consideration of the transformation, in China, of corporations as well as business ethics, employee performance and labor in general in the context of financialization." - Augustine Adu Frimpong and Noah Kankam Kwarteng, African and Asian Studies

"Best Practice is an engaging ethnography based on immersive, multisited fieldwork, and is worth reading for anthropologists specializing in work, business, and capitalism, both inside and outside of China." - Xinyan Peng, Anthropology of Work Review

"Based on rich, immersive fieldwork, this book allows for understanding the complex social processes whereby 'financialization' takes place, as a combination of multiple repertoires such as shareholder value, modernization, nationalism, culturalism, state capitalism and the teleologies of globalization they facilitate." - Horacio Ortiz, Asian Anthropology

"Best Practice carves out a very interesting and revealing picture of the organizational-level behaviors for management consulting in many different aspects, including performance management, outsourcing, corporate social responsibility, training, and relations with clients." - Qian Jiwei, Asian Journal of Social Science

"Kimberly Chong’s Best Practice o?ers a thought-provoking ethnography. . . . This book is an important addition to the rapidly expanding ?eld of business anthropology." - Tomoko Hamada, Anthropological Forum

"Best Practice carves out a very interesting and revealing picture of the organisational-level behaviours for management consulting in many different aspects, including performance management, outsourcing, corporate social responsibility, training, and relations with clients." - Qian Jiwei, Asian Journal of Social Science

“The book should make for vital reading in graduate and undergraduate courses focusing on the anthropology of finance, cultural theories of value, ethical subject-making, and labor in post-Mao China.” 

“Best Practice speaks to many of the themes that interest scholars of cultural economy…. Chong is an anthropologist skilled in being both close to, and critically distant, from the field. But this should not underestimate the emotional and intellectual effort that has gone into this powerful book, which is a treasure trove of insights for scholars of cultural economy.”

“Chong has created an interesting narrative about how management consultants operate in China. Her book presents new insights and opportunities for further research.” - Rui Torres de Oliveira, The China Journal

“As anthropology looks more deeply into contemporary institutions, including businesses, NGOs, and public entities, contributions such as Chong’s Best Practice are going to become increasingly important to the discipline.... Best Practice illuminates new issues and possibilities in the increasingly global regime.” - Allen W. Batteau, American Anthropologist