Sketches a pragmatist model of authority by studying the case of a consultant faced with the issue of establishing his authority in the actual context of a consulting assignment, and showing how the consultant invokes various “figures” that lend weight to his actions.

Do instruments such as performance indicators, valuation formulas, consumer tests, stock prices or financial contracts represent an external reality? Or do they rather constitute, in a performative fashion, what they refer to? The Provoked Economy tackles this question from a pragmatist angle,...