- Parsa Sanjana Sajid
-
Nothing And Too Much All At The Same Time
20 pages
A4
- Design: Seth Weiner
Parsa Sanjana Sajid offers insight into the ways in which the consultancy industry's methods and practices influence many aspects of life yet simultaneously fails to produce the effects it is claiming to have. The jargon of social impact, she writes, “produces nothing and too much all at the same time. It is action and inaction at the same time.” Drawing on examples from Myanmar and Bangladesh, Sajid traces the expansion of western consultancy capitalism into a new international market, while an ongoing refugee crisis continues to cause physical and psychological violence. She writes “The promise of social impact is wide and shallow. Social impact is a ready script and vision with which businesses, governments, nonprofits, think tanks have armed themselves. Often consultants “help” in fulfilling that promise. Promises of change and results, quantifiable evaluations and actionable terms, efficiency and process improvements, acceleration and deceleration all tied to the rhythms of capitalism. Consultants are experts at finding a seat at the table to turn a concept into a cliché – disruption, innovation, thinking outside the box. A stake on the street would be more promising.”