Future work: Toward a practice perspective

Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapter

Authors

In the ‘future of work’ in particular and organizations more generally, the future is a ubiquitous companion and serves as a key point of orientation for actions. However, at the same time, the future is elusive, as its open-endedness undermines attempts to fully predict and ‘manage’, but also examine this temporal mode. In response to the intricate challenge of exploring the role of the future in organizations, we argue that practice theory can help us gain a deeper understanding of how organizational actors engage with the future. By revisiting key principles of practice theory and their relationships with time and the future, we propose to explore ‘future work’, i.e., the situationally enacted, performative, heterogeneous, and relationally entwined bundle of practices through which organizational actors engage with events that are to come. We conclude by discussing the implications of gaining a practice-based understanding of the future in organizations and suggest avenues for future research.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOrganization as time : Technology, Power and Politics
EditorsFrançois Xavier de Vaujany, Robin Holt, Albane Grandazzi
Number of pages20
Place of PublicationCambridge
PublisherCambridge University Press
Publication date2023
Pages136-155
ISBN (print)978-1-009-29725-7, 978-1-009-29726-4
ISBN (electronic)978-1-009-29728-8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

    Research areas

  • Management studies - Organization, future work, future-making, practice theory, situationality, performativity, heterogeneity, Relationality

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