The role of space in the emergence and endurance of organizing: How independent workers and material assemblages constitute organizations

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Where do new organizations come from, and how do they persist? Based on an ethnographic study of two creative hubs in Amsterdam, in which creative independent workers rented studio space, we show how space plays a role in constituting new organizations and making them last. Focusing on challenging moments in the development of these two creative hubs, we propose that space, understood as a material assemblage, participates in providing endurance to organizing practices. It does so because space and practice reflexively account for each other. In other words, space may constrain or enable practices, and provide them with meaning, as the literature abundantly illustrates, but practices also define and shape space. Rather than emphasizing either of these two options, we argue that they should be understood as integral to each other. Furthermore, it is precisely their reflexive relation that contributes to the emergence of new organizations. Our study contributes to the literature on the communicative constitution of organizations, and more broadly to the knowledge of organizing in the creative industries.
Original languageEnglish
JournalHuman Relations
Volume72
Issue number6
Pages (from-to)1057-1080
Number of pages24
ISSN0018-7267
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.06.2019

    Research areas

  • Entrepreneurship - CCO, constitution of organisation, creative industries, independent workers, practices

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Biodegradation of the Antituberculosis Drug Isoniazid in the Aquatic Environment
  2. Per un'etica della distruzion
  3. The Importance of School Leaders’ Attitudes and Health Literacy to the Implementation of a Health-Promoting Schools Approach
  4. Medienidentitäten
  5. Relationship and Participation
  6. Räumliche Ökonomie
  7. A multi-level assessment of changes in stakeholder constellations, interest and influence on ecosystem services under different landscape scenarios in southwestern Ethiopia
  8. International sojourn experience and personality development
  9. BYOD - Start in die nächste Generation
  10. Online intervention for prevention of major depression
  11. Per un'etica della distruzione
  12. International scaling of sustainability continuing professional development for in-service teachers
  13. Cybermobbing, Hatespeech, Sexting und Cybergrooming.
  14. Entwicklungsfähige Planungssysteme
  15. Diffusion and Decentralized Bargaining in International Organizations: Evidence from Mercosur’s Dispute Settlement Mechanism
  16. What is sustainability economics?
  17. Im freien Feld
  18. Measuring positive sustainability - A systematic literature review
  19. Energiemanagement
  20. Legacies of the Permanent Court of International Justice
  21. Platons politische Philosophie des Fleischesseropfers
  22. Is seashell powder suitable for phosphate recovery from fermentation broth?
  23. Michael Hoffmann. 2017. Stil und Text. Eine Einführung (Narr Studienbücher). Tübingen: Narr/Francke/Attempto
  24. Democratic Legitimacy in Regional Economic Organizations
  25. Reflexitvität und System. Die Debatte über Ordnung und Selbstorganisation in den 1970er Jahren“
  26. Corruption and Electoral Support for New Political Parties in Central and Eastern Europe
  27. Die Kunstreligion
  28. Internationalism, the universal child and the world of children's literature
  29. Kommentar der Herausgeberinnen