scholarly journals Essai: From Iron Cages to Liquid Modernity in Organization Analysis

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 1713-1733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart Clegg ◽  
Carmen Baumeler
Keyword(s):  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Liquid Modernity ◽  
Iron Cage ◽  
Organization Analysis ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sociology Of Consumption

Historically, the metaphor of the iron cage, as a key component of Weber’s sociological imagination, has played a central role in organization studies. It did so both in its initial role in the sociology of bureaucracy and in its reinterpretation in institutional terms. More recently, there have been claims that the metaphors should change. The implications of this for the analysis of organization are the subject of this paper. To address these changes, we draw on debates that have been current in the sociology of consumption, where there is an emergent consensus that there has been a shift to an increasingly liquid modernity. We ask, what are the implications of liquid modernity when viewed not solely in the sphere of consumption but when we shift focus back to the sphere of production — to organizations?

scholarly journals Organizations: power/history/imagination

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 01-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart Clegg
Keyword(s):  
Bounded Rationality ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Ideal World ◽  
The Core ◽  
Organization Analysis ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The Trinity

The paper takes the assumptions of bounded rationality as the premise for organization theorizing. It draws a distinction between a science of objects and a science of subjects, arguing the latter as the more appropriate frame for organization analysis. Organization studies, it suggests, are an example of the type of knowledge that Flyvbjerg, following Aristotle, terms 'phronesis'. At the core of phronetic organization studies, the paper argues, there stands a concern with power, history and imagination. The core of the paper discusses power and the politics of organizing, to point up some central differences in approach to the key term in the trinity that the paper invokes. The paper concludes that organization theory and analysis is best cultivated not in an ideal world of paradigm consensus or domination but in a world of discursive plurality, where obstinate differences in domain assumptions are explicit and explicitly tolerated. A good conversation assumes engagement with alternate points of view, argued against vigorously, but ultimately, where these positions pass the criteria of reason rather than prejudice, tolerated as legitimate points of view. In so doing, it elaborates and defends criteria of reason.

scholarly journals Reimagining the terrain of liquid times: Reflexive marketing and the sociological imagination

2020 ◽  
pp. 146954052095520
Author(s):  
Paul Hewer
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Public Issues ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Liquid Modernity ◽  
The Third ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Political Economic

This paper has three objectives. The first is to deliver a critical review of the work of Zygmunt Bauman on Liquid Modernity and Liquid Times. I argue that Bauman’s work can provide a useful starting point for analysing the ‘unruly’ forces of contemporary society. Bauman’s work, as I have sought to reveal, takes us to the heart of liquid modern darkness. It forces us to take seriously the import of the sociological imagination and the insight that personal troubles are best understood as emerging public issues stemming from structural processes. The second objective, is to explore how consumer culture theorists have taken and in dialogue with these ideas sought to expand upon his initial ideas. Here I review the value of the concept of ‘liquid consumption’ and the ‘fresh start mindset’. The third and final objective, is to demonstrate how reflexive marketing practitioners are responding to such liquid times through rethinking their practice and thereby extending the terrain of marketing. Here I detail how the promise marketing imagination starts not with the darkness of liquid modern times but rather with a far more hope inspired tale to enchant new markets and new audiences on the possibilities and ‘solutions’ of being future oriented and technologically savvy. Finally, it argues that the task of reimagining appears essential given the current zeitgeist, where the climate of anxiety, fear and uncertainty whether it be political, economic, environmental or social threatens to engulf us.

Sociological Imagination and Literary Sensitivity: A Tribute to M. N. Srinivas

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-153
Author(s):  
N. Jayaram
Keyword(s):  
Sociological Imagination ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Raja Rao ◽  
Rare Combination ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The Way

M. N. Srinivas is undoubtedly the most readable among sociologists in India. For him, the way he wrote about a subject was as important as the subject itself. This lent a literary flavour to his writings. His writings are, in fact, imbued with a rare combination of sociological imagination and literary sensitivity; The Remembered Village, his masterpiece is perhaps the best illustration of this. In his Hassan Raja Rao Lecture, titled ‘Social Anthropology and Literary Sensibility’ (1998), he explained the relevance and importance of such sensitivity for sociologists engaged in understanding society and culture. Taking a cue from this, the instant lecture examines the mutual relations between sociological imagination and literary sensitivity. Substantively, it elucidates the sociological imagination embedded in literature and the consequent importance of literature for the sociologist.

An Interview with Zygmunt Bauman: How to Turn the Word into Flesh

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 115-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slawomir Czapnik
Keyword(s):  
Political Authority ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Zygmunt Bauman ◽  
Liquid Modernity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Social Entanglement

Deceased in January this year, the Polish-British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has left an extremely rich scholarly legacy. In one of his last academic interviews, he refers to the key issues which had been the subject of his in-depth analysis for many years. Bauman starts with reflections on the gap between political authority and power. Next, given his long-standing research into ‘liquid modernity’, he focuses on the vitality of capitalism, which has now adopted a lighter, consumer form. Another thread of the interview is Bauman’s own research attitude, which he refers to as ‘sociological hermeneutics’. It is characterized by his reluctance to use any ‘-isms’ and a profound mistrust of all particular schools of research (including postmodernism) which could limit creative freedom. In the final part of the interview, Bauman highlights the problem of the social entanglement of intellectuals.

scholarly journals Work as affective experience: The contribution of Christophe Dejours’ ‘psychodynamics of work’

Organization ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Dashtipour ◽  
Bénédicte Vidaillet
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
The Body ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Leadership Motivation ◽  
Work Tasks ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

Psychoanalytic perspectives (such as the Kleinian/Bionian and Lacanian literature) have made significant contributions to the study of affect in organizations. While some have pointed out the affects involved in work tasks, most of this literature generally focuses on the affects linked to organizational life (such as learning, leadership, motivation, power, or change). The center of attention is not on affects associated with the work process itself. We draw from the French psychodynamic theory of Christophe Dejours—who is yet to be known in English language organization studies—to make the following contributions. First, we show the relationship between affect and working by discussing Dejours’ notions of affective suffering, the real of work, the significance of the body, and ‘ordinary sublimation’. Second, we advance critical research in organization studies by demonstrating the centrality of work in the affective life of the subject. Third, the article reinterprets Menzies’ well-known hospital case study to illustrate how Dejours’ theory extends existing psychoanalytical approaches, and especially to point to the significant role of the work collective in supporting workers to work well. We conclude by suggesting that if the centrality of work in the affective life of the subject is acknowledged, it follows that resistance strategies, and work collectives’ struggle for emancipation, should focus on reclaiming work.

Foucault beyond Fairclough: From Transcendental to Immanent Critique in Organization Studies

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (12) ◽  
pp. 1753-1772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowland Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Problem Posing ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Critical Realist ◽  
Counter Example ◽  
Immanent Critique ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference

This article presents the case that while Foucault’s ideas have been the subject of much debate, the distinctive transformative potentials of his immanent thought have tended to have been overlooked in the field to date. In making this case, critical realism provides an important counter-example, as a transcendental orientation to critical practice with significant influence in contemporary organization studies. In drawing out the difference between these contrasting orientations to critique, Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analytic (CDA) framework is evaluated here as an approach to organization studies that took early inspiration from Foucault’s work, while having looked towards critical realist ideas in recent years. Fairclough’s writings on discourse and university ‘marketization’ provide a useful empirical focus to explore the distinctive styles of problem-posing that follow from these different critical orientations; contrasting the distanced normativity of critical realist-informed transcendentalism with the situated, transformative potentials of Foucault’s immanent thought. Through these investigations, the article offers a reappraisal of existing lines of debate on Foucault and critical realism in organization studies, and of the value of Foucault’s ideas to the field more broadly.

NGO Accountability: A Conceptual Review across the Engaged Disciplines

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcel Kaba
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
New Directions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

AbstractNon-governmental organizations (NGOs) are pivotal actors in international affairs. They manage billions of dollars in funding, work all around the world, and shape global policies and standards. It thus comes as no surprise that the subject of accountability has drawn the interest of an increasing number of scholars across disciplines. Though there seems to be agreement about its desirability, accountability is also described as chameleon-like and ambiguous. And despite calls for more cross-disciplinary learning and conceptual clarity, there does not exist a comprehensive review of accountability conceptualizations across and within disciplines, or how the different meanings relate to each other. Based on the conceptual review of 217 research articles published within the last twenty years, this study identifies and analyzes conceptualizations of accountability in the major journals of five engaged disciplines: accounting, development studies, international relations and political science, organization studies and management, and public administration. Integrating this broad scholarship reveals that: (1) there exist 113 different conceptualizations of accountability, 90 of which are rarely used and appear in less than 5 percent of all analyzed articles, (2) scholars have used forty-three different conceptualizations in 2019 compared to seventeen conceptualizations in 2009, (3) many conceptualizations refer to same phenomena by different name (duplication), and different phenomena by the same name (conflict), and that (4) conceptual ambiguity contributes to ambiguity among the forty different terms used to measure and operationalize accountability. These findings illustrate a lack of cross-disciplinary learning and accumulation of knowledge, and suggest that new conceptualizations be introduced only if one or more of the 113 existing ones don't already capture an idea sufficiently. The purpose of this article is to serve as a concept map for scholars when debating and charting new directions for the study of accountability.

Michel Foucault (1926–1984)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Weiskopf ◽  
Hugh Willmott
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Gay Rights ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Subject And Object ◽  
Political Activist ◽  
The Subject

Michel Foucault has been variously pigeon-holed as a philosopher, structuralist, post-structuralist, anti-modernist, postmodernist, happy positivist, political activist, gay rights activist, krypto-normativist, and pseudo-marxist. Yet his work escapes categorizations including ‘philosophy’ and ‘process philosophy’. It is Foucault’s ‘systematic scepticism toward all anthropological universals’, combined with his illumination of the processes and practices through which the subject and object are formed and transformed historically, which makes his work significant in the context of process philosophy and organization studies. This chapter begins by considering Foucault as a placeholder for a particular style, or styles, of thinking that contributes to an appreciation of process. It then examines his understanding of discourse, history, and practices as it interrogates process, and reflects on the engagement of his thinking within the field of organization studies. In addition, this chapter considers some of the more influential Foucauldian ideas that are relevant to organization studies, including panopticism, resistance, and governmentality, as well as the apparatus of security and the question of freedom in the context of power relations.

scholarly journals Revisiting Mary O’Brien – Reproductive Consciousness and Liquid Maternity

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annette Burfoot
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Reproductive Technologies ◽  
Liquid Modernity ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Socialist Feminism ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Theoretical Developments

This research note examines feminist theory from socialist feminism through the post-structural turn associated with thinkers like Foucault, Derrida and Butler to neo-materialism, this last noted for its emphasis on the body's materiality as opposed to the subject as a socially constructed or merely linguistic practice. Tracing these theoretical developments is contextualized with respect to theories and concepts such as feminist standpoint theories of epistemology, historical materialism and Baumann's "liquid modernity". I ask: have we lost sight of the strength of feminist structuralism - particularly the effects of capital - in order to accommodate multiple and complex subjectifications associated with gender? Mary O'Brien's reproductive consciousness, her argument that women's consciousness is fundamentally shaped through the different moments related to reproduction, is re-examined in light of recent developments in egg donation and surrogacy. This is not intended as an exercise in romantic longing for some sort of utopian society where femininity is venerated. Rather, it is an exploration of the potential for reproductive consciousness to guide political responses to contemporary problems raised by new reproductive technologies that combine capital and gender in a single dialectic.

Disappearing ‘formal organization’: How organization studies dissolved its ‘core object’, and what follows from this

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-479
Author(s):  
Paul du Gay
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Formal Organization ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Organization Analysis ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Organizational Concern ◽  
Social Explanation ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Or Organization

This article addresses itself to accounting for how and why the situation has arisen whereby much, though by no means all, of what self-identifies as organizational analysis – whether in sociology or organization studies – isn’t actually organizational, and to exploring what follows from this. The article argues that the specificity of ‘organizational analysis’ – which requires its proponents to think (and, indeed, act) ‘organizationally’ – has been returned to the amorphous world of ‘social explanation’. The article therefore attempts to highlight the manner in which the tropes of social explanation deployed within contemporary sociology and organization studies reduce ‘formal organization’ to the status of a social container. In making this case, the article commends an alternative stance towards organization that precisely eschews ‘talking about organizations’ epiphenomenally. It does so by seeking to highlight key aspects of the practical disposition towards organization adopted by classic organization theories and other related approaches throughout the history of organization analysis. In approaching organizational matters in this way, it also attempts to upend the reflex accusation of naivety, rationalism and contemporary irrelevance directed towards the ‘historical artefacts’ of organizational theorizing from the present, and indeed to suggest how classical preoccupations can be applied to pressing matters of contemporary organizational concern without any need to ‘update’ them.

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