scholarly journals The role of space in the emergence and endurance of organizing: How independent workers and material assemblages constitute organizations

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1057-1080 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boukje Cnossen ◽  
Nicolas Bencherki
Keyword(s):  
Shape Space ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Communicative Constitution Of Organizations ◽  
Communicative Constitution

Where do new organizations come from, and how do they persist? Based on an ethnographic study of two creative hubs in Amsterdam, in which creative independent workers rented studio space, we show how space plays a role in constituting new organizations and making them last. Focusing on challenging moments in the development of these two creative hubs, we propose that space, understood as a material assemblage, participates in providing endurance to organizing practices. It does so because space and practice reflexively account for each other. In other words, space may constrain or enable practices, and provide them with meaning, as the literature abundantly illustrates, but practices also define and shape space. Rather than emphasizing either of these two options, we argue that they should be understood as integral to each other. Furthermore, it is precisely their reflexive relation that contributes to the emergence of new organizations. Our study contributes to the literature on the communicative constitution of organizations, and more broadly to the knowledge of organizing in the creative industries.

Rethinking the role of roadmaps in strategic planning

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 308-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Senem Güney ◽  
James R. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Project Management ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Mapping Function ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Communicative Constitution

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the problem of reconfiguring epistemic boundaries and the authority relationships that these boundaries represent in corporate R&D. The authors focus the analysis on the mediation of this reconfiguration by project management tools, specifically the development plan and its subsidiary roadmaps and timelines. Design/methodology/approach – The authors analyze discourse data from an ethnographic study to show in situ the communication about and through project management tools in collaborative project development. The concepts of organizational map and mapping from the perspective of the communicative constitution of organization (CCO) frame the close-up analysis of this communication. Findings – The analysis reveals how the plan and its subsidiary texts participate in the negotiation and legitimation of epistemic ownership and authority for a collaborative strategy to be implemented. The authors illustrate the material agency of these texts in the objectification and prioritization of strategic choices in this implementation. Research limitations/implications – To conclude, the authors discuss the significance of exploring the mapping function of supposedly mundane representational tools used in project management. Originality/value – The originality of this study comes from applying the organizational map concept to demonstrate the politically charged materiality of project management tools in the discursive establishment of authority and accomplishment of corporate strategy.

The Role of Nonprofit Sector Networks as Mechanisms for Immigrant Political Participation

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Veronis
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Action ◽  
Multiple Scales ◽  
Nonprofit Sector ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Immigrant Community ◽  
Immigrant Political Incorporation

Issues of immigrant political incorporation and transnational politics have drawn increased interest among migration scholars. This paper contributes to debates in this field by examining the role of networks, partnerships and collaborations of immigrant community organizations as mechanisms for immigrant political participation both locally and transnationally. These issues are addressed through an ethnographic study of the Hispanic Development Council, an umbrella advocacy organization representing settlement agencies serving Latin American immigrants in Toronto, Canada. Analysis of HDC’s three sets of networks (at the community, city and transnational levels) from a geographic and relational approach demonstrates the potentials and limits of nonprofit sector partnerships as mechanisms and concrete spaces for immigrant mobilization, empowerment, and social action in a context of neoliberal governance. It is argued that a combination of partnerships with a range of both state and non-state actors and at multiple scales can be significant in enabling nonprofit organizations to advance the interests of immigrant, minority and disadvantaged communities.

Embodied Spatial Practices and the Power to Care

2019 ◽  
pp. 360-377
Author(s):  
Elise Paradis ◽  
Warren Mark Liew ◽  
Myles Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Health Care Delivery ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Critical Care Units ◽  
Interprofessional Care ◽  
The Social

Drawing on an ethnographic study of teamwork in critical care units (CCUs), this chapter applies Henri Lefebvre’s ([1974] 1991) theoretical insights to an analysis of clinicians’ and patients’ embodied spatial practices. Lefebvre’s triadic framework of conceived, lived, and perceived spaces draws attention to the role of bodies in the production and negotiation of power relations among nurses, physicians, and patients within the CCU. Three ethnographic vignettes—“The Fight,” “The Parade,” and “The Plan”—explore how embodied spatial practices underlie the complexities of health care delivery, making visible the hidden narratives of conformity and resistance that characterize interprofessional care hierarchies. The social orderings of bodies in space are consequential: seeing them is the first step in redressing them.

EXPRESS: Exploring the dynamics of slack in extreme contexts: A practice-based view

2021 ◽  
pp. 001872672110077
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Leuridan ◽  
Benoît Demil
Keyword(s):  
Public Management ◽  
Critical Care Unit ◽  
New Public Management ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
New Public ◽  
Management Context ◽  
Production Practices ◽  
Extreme Contexts ◽  
Organizational Literature

Organizations that operate in extreme contexts have to develop resilience to ensure the reliability of their operations. While the organizational literature underlines the crucial role of slack when facing unanticipated events, a structural approach to slack says little about the concrete ways in which organizational actors produce and use this slack. Adopting a practice-based perspective during a 14-month ethnographic study in a French critical care unit, we study the slack practices, which consist in gathering, arranging and rearranging resources from both inside and outside the medical unit. This permanent process is captured in a dynamic model connecting situations, their evolutions and slack practices. Our research highlights the importance of situational slack production practices to ensure resilience. We also argue that these micro-practices are constitutive of the context in which actors are evolving. Finally, we discuss why these slack practices, although essential for ensuring resilience, can be endangered by the New Public Management context.

Managing different forms of distances in Dutch healthcare organizations

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 1080-1097
Author(s):  
Annemiek Stoopendaal
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Healthcare Organization ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Healthcare Organizations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Daily Work ◽  
Healthcare Executives ◽  
Governance Practices ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose – Dichotomous “gap” thinking about professionals and managers has important limits. The purpose of this paper is to study the specific ontology of “the gap” in which different forms of distances are defined. Design/methodology/approach – In order to deepen the knowledge of the actual day-to-day tasks of Dutch healthcare executives an ethnographic study of the daily work of Dutch healthcare executives and an ontological exploration of the concept “gap” was provided. The study empirically investigates the meaning given to the concept of “distance” in healthcare governance practices. Findings – The study reveals that healthcare executives have to fulfil a dual role of maintaining distance and creating proximity. Coping with different forms of distances seems to be an integral part of their work. They make use of four potential mechanisms to cope with distance in their healthcare organization practices. Originality/value – The relationship between managers and professionals is often defined as a dichotomous gap. The findings in this research suggest a more dynamic picture of the relationship between managers and professionals than is currently present in literature. This study moves “beyond” the gap and investigates processes of distancing in-depth.

Collective Memory and Social Movements: Football Sites of Memory in Supporters’ Activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Dino Numerato ◽  
Arnošt Svoboda
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Czech Republic ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
European Level ◽  
Significant Component ◽  
The Czech Republic

This paper examines the role of collective memory in the protection of “traditional” sociocultural and symbolic aspects of football vis-à-vis the processes of commodification and globalization. Empirical evidence that underpins the analysis is drawn from a multisite ethnographic study of football fan activism in the Czech Republic, Italy, and England, as well as at the European level. The authors argue that collective memory represents a significant component of the supporters’ mobilization and is related to the protection of specific football sites of memory, including club names, logos, colors, places, heroes, tragedies, and histories. The authors further explain that collective memory operates through three interconnected dimensions: embedded collective memory, transcendent collective memory, and the collective memory of contentious politics.

scholarly journals Integrating knowledge in the face of epistemic uncertainty: Dialogically drawing distinctions

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 595-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeanne Mengis ◽  
Davide Nicolini ◽  
Jacky Swan
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Epistemic Uncertainty ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Homogeneous Process ◽  
The Face ◽  
Over Time

In this article, we contribute to a processual understanding of knowledge integration in interdisciplinary collaboration by foregrounding the role of dialogue in dealing with epistemic uncertainty. Drawing on an ethnographic study of collaboration among scientists involved in developing a highly novel bioreactor, we suggest that knowledge integration is not a homogeneous process but requires switching between different knowledge integration practices over time. This is particularly notable in the case of ‘epistemic breakdowns’ – deeply unsettling events where hitherto-held understandings of the nature of problems appear unworkable. In such cases, it is not sufficient to deal solely with coordination issues; collaborators need to find ways to address generative knowledge integration processes and to venture, collectively, into the unknown. We demonstrate how this generative quest of knowledge integration is achieved through a dialogical process of drawing and testing new distinctions that allows actors to gradually handle the epistemic uncertainty they face.

scholarly journals Reintegration of Women Post Obstetric Fistula Repair: Experience of Family Caregivers

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 233339361771492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Jarvis ◽  
Solina Richter ◽  
Helen Vallianatos ◽  
Lois Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Family Member ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Obstetric Fistula ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Northern Ghana ◽  
Fistula Repair ◽  
The Social ◽  
Return Home

In northern Ghana, families traditionally function as the main provider of care. The role of family, however, is becoming increasingly challenged with the social shifts in Ghanaian culture moving from extended kinship to nuclear households. This has implications for the care of women post obstetric fistula (OF) repair and their family members who assist them to integrate back into their lives prior to developing the condition. This research is part of a larger critical ethnographic study which explores a culture of reintegration. For this article, we draw attention to the findings related to the experience of family caregivers who care for women post OF repair in northern Ghana. It is suggested that although family caregivers are pleased to have their family member return home, there are many unanticipated physical, emotional, and economic challenges. Findings lead to recommendations for enhancing the reintegration process and the need for adequate caregiving support.

THE ROLE OF PLANS IN THE FORMATION OF A NEW INNOVATION PRACTICE: AN INNOVATION OBJECT PERSPECTIVE

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (04) ◽  
pp. 1950031
Author(s):  
SIW M. FOSSTENLØKKEN
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Innovation Theory ◽  
Object Theory ◽  
Primary Object ◽  
Practice Development ◽  
Future Practice

This paper explores the role of plans, as objects, in the formation of new innovation practice in organisations. A vocabulary for analysis is developed from innovation object theory. First, findings from an ethnographic study in a hospital organisation show that a plan serves several functions depending on its activation for use: a checklist of past practice (tertiary object), an opener for debates over current practice (secondary object) and a trigger for future practice development (primary object). Second, a framework is offered that shows how a plan supports different functionalities (evaluating, debating, further exploring) in a temporal dynamics of practice formation. Third, thus, plans play a significant role not only in planning activities, but also as connectors that shape and patch together pieces of past, present and future into what actually become new organisational practice. Finally, implications for innovation theory and management are drawn from these novel contributions.

Gentrification, displacement and the arts: Untangling the relationship between arts industries and place change

Urban Studies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 807-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Grodach ◽  
Nicole Foster ◽  
James Murdoch
Keyword(s):  
Urban Policy ◽  
Statistical Study ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Creative Industries ◽  
Standard Account ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Neighbourhood Level ◽  
The Relationship

The arts have long played a role in debates around gentrification and displacement, yet their roles and impacts as change agents are not clear-cut. According to the standard account, artists facilitate gentrification and ultimately engender the displacement of lower income households, but more recent research complicates the accepted narrative. This article seeks to untangle the relationship between the arts, gentrification and displacement through a statistical study of neighbourhood-level arts industry activity within large US regions. The findings indicate that the standard arts-led gentrification narrative is too generalised or simply no longer applicable to contemporary arts-gentrification processes. Rather, the arts have multiple, even conflicting relationships with gentrification and displacement that depend on context and type of art. These results have important implications for how we study the role of the arts in neighbourhood change and for how governments approach the arts and creative industries in urban policy.

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