Metamodern cynicism and alternative organization: An ethnographic study of ‘productive false consciousness’ in a partially worker-owned consultancy

Alternative organizations are commonly understood as antidotes to cynicism; that is, as collectives who always act in accordance with ‘better knowledge’ and seek to challenge hegemonic orders through utopian visions of a ‘perfect world’. Problematizing this assumption, we propose that cynicism might be an indispensable virtue for organizations that seek to advance counter-hegemonic principles and practices in a viable manner. To that end, we reinterpret Sloterdijk’s famous definition of cynical reason and coin the term ‘metamodern cynicism’, characterized by ‘productive false consciousness’, as a way of explaining how alternative organizations can switch between sincere belief in moral ideals and reflexive critique of those very ideals. In doing so, we draw on a theoretical perspective known as ‘metamodernism’, which helps us unfold how such oscillations between construction and deconstruction occur in practice. Empirically, the paper draws on an ethnographic study of a partially worker-owned consultancy to show how the organization oscillates between alternativity and necessity, while its members act as if it is more alternative than current circumstances allow. In conclusion, we argue that the productive false consciousness of metamodern cynicism opens new strategic avenues for alternatives, extends the vocabulary of processual approaches to alternativity and points to the progressive potential of cynicism in, but not limited to, alternative organization.