The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In t... more The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In this essay, we offer a conceptual framework to thematize this burgeoning conceptual and empirical terrain. We critically explore scholarship that examines resistance in terms of its manifestations and political intent or impact. We offer four fields of possibility for resistance scholarship: individual infrapolitics, collective infrapolitics, insubordination, and insurrection (the “four I’s” of resistance). We conclude by considering the relationship between resistance theory and praxis, and pose four questions, or provocations, for stimulating future resistance research and practice.
The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In t... more The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In this essay, we offer a conceptual framework to thematise this burgeoning conceptual and empirical terrain. We critically explore scholarship that examines resistance in terms of its manifestations and political intent or impact. We offer four fields of possibility for resistance scholarship: individual infrapolitics, collective infrapolitics, insubordination, and insurrection (the “Four I’s” of Resistance). We conclude by considering the relationship between resistance theory and praxis, and pose four questions, or provocations, for stimulating future resistance research and practice.
We adopt a Foucauldian approach to discourse to show how power relations shape the constitution o... more We adopt a Foucauldian approach to discourse to show how power relations shape the constitution of strategy. By exploring two particular discourses associated with the strategy of a global telecommunications company, our study shows how the power effects of discourses are “intensified” through particular discursive and material practices, leading to the production of objects and subjects that are clearly aligned with the strategy. In this way, our study contributes to understanding the mechanisms whereby discourse bears down on strategy through intensification practices, different forms of resistance, and the way in which strategy objects and subjects reproduce (or undermine) discourse.
Age, as an embodied identity and as an organizing principle, has received scant attention in orga... more Age, as an embodied identity and as an organizing principle, has received scant attention in organization studies. There is a lack of critical appreciation of how age plays out in organizational settings, the material and discursive dynamics of age practices, how age discourses impact on the body, and how age and ageing intersects with other identity categories. This is curious since age works as a master signifier in contemporary society and is something that affects us all. In this introductory essay, we show how the papers in this special issue redress this lacuna by enhancing and challenging what we know about age and organizations. We also set out an agenda for stimulating research conversations to bring an age-sensitive lens to organizational analysis. We structure our analysis around two focal points: age as an embodied identity, and the symbolic meanings of age within organizing practices. In doing so, we aim to provide a catalyst not only about research on age in organizations but also about the aged nature of organizing.
This article presents theoretical and empirical analysis of the micro-politics of resistance. We ... more This article presents theoretical and empirical analysis of the micro-politics of resistance. We theorize resistance at the level of meanings and subjectivities, drawing attention to the multidirectional and generative effects in identity construction. We address two shortcomings present in much of the theorizing of resistance, namely, the conceptualizing of resistance as a set of actions and behaviours, and the narrow conception of resistance as a reaction to repressive power. Focusing on the UK public services, we draw from texts generated within interviews with public service professionals in the police, social services and secondary education to explore the meanings individuals ascribe to the discourse of New Public Management (NPM) and their positioning within these meanings. The analysis contributes to the study of organizations in three respects. First, it offers a more detailed and varied understanding of resistance that can account for different motivations and ways in which individuals struggle to transform meanings. Second, drawing on specific cases, it illustrates the process of the micro-politics of resistance. Third, it presents an empirically grounded understanding of the character and conduct of NPM that can accommodate greater complexity and nuance.
In this article, we explore the discursive possibilities available to men and women when they con... more In this article, we explore the discursive possibilities available to men and women when they construct their professional self as 'knowledge workers' in multinational management consultancies. We argue that this professional identity construction is embedded in a normalizing, gendered discourse of what it means to be an 'ideal' consultant. However, representations of an alternative discourse, which constructs different spheres in an individual's life, can also be traced in the consultants' talk. Through a comparison of British and Finnish consultants' talk, we show the relevance of placing micro-discourses in context. In the UK, discourse on 'work/life balance' may be understood as a form of resistance at the level of subjectivity. In Finland, discourse on the 'balanced individual' can be seen to be an articulation of a societally bound normalizing discourse. The cultural context can thus be said to have an effect on forms of resistance in knowledge work.
In this article, we reflect on our experiences of collaborative working in a cross-cultural resea... more In this article, we reflect on our experiences of collaborative working in a cross-cultural research team. We reflexively interrogate the construction of the univocal “we” that is expressed in our dissemination of the research findings. We show how cross-cultural collaborative research brings into sharp relief underlying complex culturally and theoretically determined patterns of thinking within the research team that may
In: Alvesson, M., Bridgman, T. and Willmott, H. (2009) (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Critical Man... more In: Alvesson, M., Bridgman, T. and Willmott, H. (2009) (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford.] family, work, and neighbourhood, created an identity crisis, fuelling the search for alternative forms of belonging and attachment (Collinson
The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In t... more The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In this essay, we offer a conceptual framework to thematize this burgeoning conceptual and empirical terrain. We critically explore scholarship that examines resistance in terms of its manifestations and political intent or impact. We offer four fields of possibility for resistance scholarship: individual infrapolitics, collective infrapolitics, insubordination, and insurrection (the “four I’s” of resistance). We conclude by considering the relationship between resistance theory and praxis, and pose four questions, or provocations, for stimulating future resistance research and practice.
The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In t... more The last 15 years have witnessed renewed interest in resistance in and around organizations. In this essay, we offer a conceptual framework to thematise this burgeoning conceptual and empirical terrain. We critically explore scholarship that examines resistance in terms of its manifestations and political intent or impact. We offer four fields of possibility for resistance scholarship: individual infrapolitics, collective infrapolitics, insubordination, and insurrection (the “Four I’s” of Resistance). We conclude by considering the relationship between resistance theory and praxis, and pose four questions, or provocations, for stimulating future resistance research and practice.
We adopt a Foucauldian approach to discourse to show how power relations shape the constitution o... more We adopt a Foucauldian approach to discourse to show how power relations shape the constitution of strategy. By exploring two particular discourses associated with the strategy of a global telecommunications company, our study shows how the power effects of discourses are “intensified” through particular discursive and material practices, leading to the production of objects and subjects that are clearly aligned with the strategy. In this way, our study contributes to understanding the mechanisms whereby discourse bears down on strategy through intensification practices, different forms of resistance, and the way in which strategy objects and subjects reproduce (or undermine) discourse.
Age, as an embodied identity and as an organizing principle, has received scant attention in orga... more Age, as an embodied identity and as an organizing principle, has received scant attention in organization studies. There is a lack of critical appreciation of how age plays out in organizational settings, the material and discursive dynamics of age practices, how age discourses impact on the body, and how age and ageing intersects with other identity categories. This is curious since age works as a master signifier in contemporary society and is something that affects us all. In this introductory essay, we show how the papers in this special issue redress this lacuna by enhancing and challenging what we know about age and organizations. We also set out an agenda for stimulating research conversations to bring an age-sensitive lens to organizational analysis. We structure our analysis around two focal points: age as an embodied identity, and the symbolic meanings of age within organizing practices. In doing so, we aim to provide a catalyst not only about research on age in organizations but also about the aged nature of organizing.
This article presents theoretical and empirical analysis of the micro-politics of resistance. We ... more This article presents theoretical and empirical analysis of the micro-politics of resistance. We theorize resistance at the level of meanings and subjectivities, drawing attention to the multidirectional and generative effects in identity construction. We address two shortcomings present in much of the theorizing of resistance, namely, the conceptualizing of resistance as a set of actions and behaviours, and the narrow conception of resistance as a reaction to repressive power. Focusing on the UK public services, we draw from texts generated within interviews with public service professionals in the police, social services and secondary education to explore the meanings individuals ascribe to the discourse of New Public Management (NPM) and their positioning within these meanings. The analysis contributes to the study of organizations in three respects. First, it offers a more detailed and varied understanding of resistance that can account for different motivations and ways in which individuals struggle to transform meanings. Second, drawing on specific cases, it illustrates the process of the micro-politics of resistance. Third, it presents an empirically grounded understanding of the character and conduct of NPM that can accommodate greater complexity and nuance.
In this article, we explore the discursive possibilities available to men and women when they con... more In this article, we explore the discursive possibilities available to men and women when they construct their professional self as 'knowledge workers' in multinational management consultancies. We argue that this professional identity construction is embedded in a normalizing, gendered discourse of what it means to be an 'ideal' consultant. However, representations of an alternative discourse, which constructs different spheres in an individual's life, can also be traced in the consultants' talk. Through a comparison of British and Finnish consultants' talk, we show the relevance of placing micro-discourses in context. In the UK, discourse on 'work/life balance' may be understood as a form of resistance at the level of subjectivity. In Finland, discourse on the 'balanced individual' can be seen to be an articulation of a societally bound normalizing discourse. The cultural context can thus be said to have an effect on forms of resistance in knowledge work.
In this article, we reflect on our experiences of collaborative working in a cross-cultural resea... more In this article, we reflect on our experiences of collaborative working in a cross-cultural research team. We reflexively interrogate the construction of the univocal “we” that is expressed in our dissemination of the research findings. We show how cross-cultural collaborative research brings into sharp relief underlying complex culturally and theoretically determined patterns of thinking within the research team that may
In: Alvesson, M., Bridgman, T. and Willmott, H. (2009) (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Critical Man... more In: Alvesson, M., Bridgman, T. and Willmott, H. (2009) (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford.] family, work, and neighbourhood, created an identity crisis, fuelling the search for alternative forms of belonging and attachment (Collinson
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