Spacing organization: non-representational theory and performing organizational space

Abstract

This article connects to and extends the attempts to bring space back into critical organizational theory, which, we argue, has mainly been based on the socio-spatial perspective as pioneered by Henri Lefebvre. Taking issue with the various ways in which Lefebvre’s work can be interpreted, we develop an alternative route. Adopting a mode of non-representational theorizing as outlined in human geography, we propose the concept of ‘spacing’, which orients the understanding of organizational space towards its material, embodied, affective and minor configurations. In discussing the consequences of such a performative approach to space for the practice and craft of organizational scholarship, we argue that our conceptual opening entails a move from representational strategies of extracting representations of the (organizational) world from the world to embodied apprehensions of the everyday performing of organizational space. What can be termed the enactment of organizational geographies in slow motion is inspired and illustrated by the video ‘The Raft’ conceived by the artist Bill Viola.

Os Circos Contemporâneos como Heterotopias Organizacionais: Uma Etnografia Multissituada no Contexto Brasil-Canadá

“…Recentemente, diversos autores (Beyes & Steyaert, 2011;Gallan, 2015;Ramos, 2010;Rodríguez-Amat & Brantner, 2016;Soja, 1993) têm retomado esse conceito de Michel Foucault para compreender as dinâmicas espaciais nos contextos urbanos. Isso porque as heterotopias possibilitam deslocar as discussões sobre espaços da bifurcação teórica entre representações e materialidade ao propor a existência de elementos heterogêneos que escapam à ordem normativa.…”

Performing the Digital : Performance Studies and Performances in Digital Cultures

“…the performative making of gendered identities in organizations (Tyler and Cohen 2010) and pondered the potential of queer theory to disrupt mainstream accounts of organizational life (Parker 2001). Importantly, the notion of performativity has not only been linked to discursive formations of organizational realities and the production of identities, but also to the very material and affective forces of organizational spaces (Beyes/Steyaert 2012) and to its objects and technologies (Orlikowski/Scott 2014;Nyberg/Wright 2015). Moreover, the performativity of organizational scholarship itself has been discussed both methodologically (Beyes/Steyaert 2011) and politically, the latter primarily by way of the development of, and debates on, the notion of 'critical performativity' see McKenzie, this volume).…”

Situating organisational learning and public participation: Stories, spaces and connections

“…The notion of "co-production" has played a particularly significant role in this body of work (Jasanoff, 2004b), elaborating how identities, institutions, discourses and representations can be mutually constructed. The new attention to processes and contingency (Irwin, 2008;Owens, 2010;Stirling, 2006) suggests a way of viewing organisations as objects constantly in the process of becoming -dynamic, multiple, performative and open-ended -resulting from networks of different practices of organising and knowing (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012;Jasanoff, 2004a). For example, McFarlane's model of the city as a "machine for learning" (2011b) describes learning as a process of translation, co-ordination or ordering, and shifting not only knowledge but ways of seeing and being (McFarlane, 2011a).…”

“…Recent work in the field of geography has been important in challenging assumptions about the nature of and possibilities for organisational change. Space and materiality have been key themes running through these interventions, emphasising the situatedness of organisational learning processes (Amin & Roberts, 2008), exploring the potential for different kinds of organisational spaces to support different kinds of learning and change (Pelling et al, 2008), and affirming the active role played by space and materiality in organisational learning processes (Beyes & Steyaert, 2012;Conradson, 2003;McFarlane, 2011b).…”