TY - JOUR

T1 - The Street and Organization Studies

AU - Cnossen, Boukje

AU - de Vaujany, François-Xavier

AU - Haefliger, Stefan

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2020.

PY - 2021/8

Y1 - 2021/8

N2 - Work and organization increasingly happen in transit. People meet in coffee shops and write emails from their phones while waiting for buses or sitting outdoors on benches. Business meetings are held in airports and projects are run from laptops during travel. We take the street as a place where organizing in transit accumulates. While the organization studies field has been catching up with various related phenomena, including co-working, digital nomadism, and mobile and online communities, we argue that it has overlooked what has historically been the most important site for organizational activity outside of organizations. The street has been both location and inspiration for organizing, whether political, social or governmental. It is a space of both planning and spontaneity, of silent co-existence and explicit conflict, and therefore offers abundant empirical and methodological opportunities. It is surprising that the street and the experiences it brings with it have remained largely outside the scope of organization studies. We suggest that organization scholars take to the street, and offer recommendations as to how to do so. Specifically, we explore the tensions that become apparent when organizing happens in and through the street.

AB - Work and organization increasingly happen in transit. People meet in coffee shops and write emails from their phones while waiting for buses or sitting outdoors on benches. Business meetings are held in airports and projects are run from laptops during travel. We take the street as a place where organizing in transit accumulates. While the organization studies field has been catching up with various related phenomena, including co-working, digital nomadism, and mobile and online communities, we argue that it has overlooked what has historically been the most important site for organizational activity outside of organizations. The street has been both location and inspiration for organizing, whether political, social or governmental. It is a space of both planning and spontaneity, of silent co-existence and explicit conflict, and therefore offers abundant empirical and methodological opportunities. It is surprising that the street and the experiences it brings with it have remained largely outside the scope of organization studies. We suggest that organization scholars take to the street, and offer recommendations as to how to do so. Specifically, we explore the tensions that become apparent when organizing happens in and through the street.

KW - Entrepreneurship

KW - Management studies

KW - organization studies

KW - organizing

KW - the street

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084809544&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/ce0edc6c-c1af-3291-8439-ee0d952a4dec/

U2 - 10.1177/0170840620918380

DO - 10.1177/0170840620918380

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 42

SP - 1337

EP - 1349

JO - Organization Studies

JF - Organization Studies

SN - 0170-8406

IS - 8

ER -