TY - JOUR

T1 - Alternativity as freedom

T2 - Exploring tactics of emergence in alternative forms of organizing

AU - Dahlman, Sara

AU - Mygind du Plessis, Erik

AU - Husted, Emil

AU - Just, Sine N.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2022/10

Y1 - 2022/10

N2 - This article proposes that being alternative is not a question of adhering to certain principles or applying certain practices, but rather a question of freedom. It does so by exploring three empirical cases of alternative organizing, namely the sustainable fin-tech start-up SusPens, teachers of mindfulness meditation, and the UK minor party Independents for Frome. The article first identifies a common trajectory, according to which alternative organizing usually begins with a rejection of the dominant socio-economic order. However, in seeking to increase their impact on the world, alternatives are often appropriated by the very order they were meant to depart from. On that basis, we explore how freedom can be articulated and enacted as emergent tactics that break free from this common trajectory and constitute alternativity as the ‘other’ within the existing order; in the cracks and crevasses that evade (discursive) regulation and where liberties can be taken. More specifically, we identify three emergent tactics of endurance, germination, and reiteration and discuss what they may teach us about organizing for freedom in the 21st century.

AB - This article proposes that being alternative is not a question of adhering to certain principles or applying certain practices, but rather a question of freedom. It does so by exploring three empirical cases of alternative organizing, namely the sustainable fin-tech start-up SusPens, teachers of mindfulness meditation, and the UK minor party Independents for Frome. The article first identifies a common trajectory, according to which alternative organizing usually begins with a rejection of the dominant socio-economic order. However, in seeking to increase their impact on the world, alternatives are often appropriated by the very order they were meant to depart from. On that basis, we explore how freedom can be articulated and enacted as emergent tactics that break free from this common trajectory and constitute alternativity as the ‘other’ within the existing order; in the cracks and crevasses that evade (discursive) regulation and where liberties can be taken. More specifically, we identify three emergent tactics of endurance, germination, and reiteration and discuss what they may teach us about organizing for freedom in the 21st century.

KW - alternative organization

KW - freedom

KW - mindfulness

KW - political parties

KW - sustainable finance

KW - Management studies

KW - Politics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125518066&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/00187267221080124

DO - 10.1177/00187267221080124

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85125518066

VL - 75

SP - 1961

EP - 1985

JO - Human Relations

JF - Human Relations

SN - 0018-7267

IS - 10

ER -