Power Dynamics in Field-Level Events: A Narrative Approach

Abstract

Drawing upon an in-depth analysis of two bio-tech annual conferences in Israel, we explicate the exertion of power in convening. Event organization involves three narrative mechanisms: (1) telling stories which construct the field, and enacting them through different genres that channel participants to perform these stories in the unfolding of the event; (2) setting the stage and a space of possibilities for certain stories to be told in certain ways, and limiting others; and (3) grounding the stories in meta-narratives that confer plausibility on some of them over others. Our contribution lies in explicating how diverse narrative mechanisms allow organizers to exert various faces of power in organizing an event, how organizers use power to construct their own and others’ resources, and how power is used not only through words, but also through space and embodiment. Taken together, self-serving constructions of the field are turned into a taken-for-granted reality, while constraining participants’ ability to negotiate or refute it.

The Desire to Rethink Power AND Performativity AND Process

“…Appropriating ideas from Austin, we already accept that we have ways of doing new things with words (Bosma, Chia, & Fouweather, 2016); performative acts bestow words with power, changing the social world they relate to (e.g. Gross &Zilber (2020), andSchildt, Mantere, &Cornelissen (2020)). Wickert and Schaefer (2015, p. 124) draw attention to a form of progressive performativity in which 'language is used as a vehicle for micro-emancipation, reflexivity and change'.…”

The Methodology/Theory Interface: Ethnography and the Microfoundations of Institutions

“…Studying field-level events allows for capturing field dynamics in vivo (Zilber, 2014(Zilber, , 2015. In recent years, there is a move from the study of 'strong mandate' events and their long-term effects to the study of fieldlevel social events and their inner workings (Gross & Zilber, 2020). Ethnographic studies of these meeting are ipso facto studies of the microfoundations of institutions.…”

“…Zilber (2011) compared two high-tech conferences, both held in the same year, to uncover how field-level multiplicity is expressed and maintained in field-configuring events. Gross and Zilber (2020) explored the narrative mechanisms that organizers of field-level events use to exert power over participants. In these research projects, the researchers do not attempt to chart longitudinal effects.…”

Entrepreneurial ecosystems as a bridging concept? A conceptual contribution to the debate on entrepreneurship and regional development

“…In the last years, the time-and interaction-based concept of "field-configuring events"-introduced by Lampel and Meyer (2008)-provided insights into the nature and the social formulation of new time-oriented geographies of production in knowledge-based as well as creative industries. The concept of field-configuring events is an approach, mainly in management and organisation studies (e.g., Aspers & Asaf, 2011;Gross & Zilber, 2020;Lampel & Meyer, 2008;Moeran & Strandgaard Pedersen, 2011;Schüßler et al, 2015), and has attracted recent attention in studies within economic geography (e.g., Lange, Power, & Suwala, 2014;Scott, 1999). So far, field configuring events have not been integrated into entrepreneurial ecosystem concepts.…”