The topographical imagination: space and organization theory
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In: Organization Theory, Vol. 1, No. 2, 01.04.2020.
Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The topographical imagination: space and organization theory
AU - Beyes, Timon
AU - Holt, Robin
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2020.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - We live in a time of space, also in the study of organization. This review essay reflects on the state and the potential of organization theory’s spatial turn by embedding it in a wider movement of thought in the humanities and social sciences. Reading exemplary studies of organizational spatialities alongside the broader history and renaissance of spatial thinking allows us to identify and discuss four twists to the spatial turn in organization theory. First, organization is understood as something placed or sited. Second, it is a site of spatial contestation, which is constitutive for (and not merely reflective of) organizational life. Third, such contestation is itself an outcome of a spatial multiplicity that encompasses affects, technologies, voids and absences. Fourth, such an excess of space is beyond (or rather before) representation and thus summons a spatial poetics. In following these twists, increasingly complex and speculative topographies of organization take shape.
AB - We live in a time of space, also in the study of organization. This review essay reflects on the state and the potential of organization theory’s spatial turn by embedding it in a wider movement of thought in the humanities and social sciences. Reading exemplary studies of organizational spatialities alongside the broader history and renaissance of spatial thinking allows us to identify and discuss four twists to the spatial turn in organization theory. First, organization is understood as something placed or sited. Second, it is a site of spatial contestation, which is constitutive for (and not merely reflective of) organizational life. Third, such contestation is itself an outcome of a spatial multiplicity that encompasses affects, technologies, voids and absences. Fourth, such an excess of space is beyond (or rather before) representation and thus summons a spatial poetics. In following these twists, increasingly complex and speculative topographies of organization take shape.
KW - Sociology
KW - aesthetics
KW - affect
KW - organizational form
KW - materiality
KW - power
KW - process theories
KW - representation
KW - resistance
KW - space
KW - site technology
KW - topography
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/732d4cfb-4837-3188-9d92-10b281a44f81/
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85103875622&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/2631787720913880
DO - 10.1177/2631787720913880
M3 - Scientific review articles
VL - 1
JO - Organization Theory
JF - Organization Theory
SN - 2631-7877
IS - 2
ER -