Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Organization Studies |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Pages (from-to) | 129–150 |
| ISSN | 0170-8406 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Benjamin
- Catastrophe
- Ethnography
- History
- Memory
- Spatiality
- Ruin
- Sebald
Cite this
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Ruin and Organization Studies. / De Cock, Christian ; O’Doherty, Damian.
In: Organization Studies, Vol. 38, No. 1, 2016, p. 129–150.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - Ruin and Organization Studies
AU - De Cock, Christian
AU - O’Doherty, Damian
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - In this paper we offer a preliminary study of the various ways in which ‘ruin’ has significance for organization studies. One important motif associated with both modern and romantic treatments of ruins concerns the revelatory impressions they make. In this respect the tradition of ruin writing will talk of their ‘beauty’, their ‘strangeness’ or their capacity to ‘intimidate’, which somehow never fails to strike a responsive nerve in us. In order to attend to this elusive phenomenon we must necessarily breach some of the self-imposed boundaries of our ‘discipline’. Taking up this challenge we follow W. G. Sebald in his use of contiguity as both method and textual structuring device, allowing us to drift across iconic ruin images, ruin theories and our own ruinous research experiences. This helps us learn how to ‘dwell’ in the ruin – without any impatient reaching after fact or explaining away ruins in the terms of an established tradition of theorizing in organization – and open up new analytic spaces and associations for organizational researchers. These concern specifically (a) a distinctive approach to time, history and memory; (b) an increased awareness of the multiplicity of forces impinging on organization, forces from which we so easily retreat behind the cordon sanitaire of organization-studies-as-usual; and (c) a cognisance of how the very way we write is a mode of doing organization that is crucial for our ability and willingness to look into ‘all corners of reality’ so that we might better grasp organizational phenomena.
AB - In this paper we offer a preliminary study of the various ways in which ‘ruin’ has significance for organization studies. One important motif associated with both modern and romantic treatments of ruins concerns the revelatory impressions they make. In this respect the tradition of ruin writing will talk of their ‘beauty’, their ‘strangeness’ or their capacity to ‘intimidate’, which somehow never fails to strike a responsive nerve in us. In order to attend to this elusive phenomenon we must necessarily breach some of the self-imposed boundaries of our ‘discipline’. Taking up this challenge we follow W. G. Sebald in his use of contiguity as both method and textual structuring device, allowing us to drift across iconic ruin images, ruin theories and our own ruinous research experiences. This helps us learn how to ‘dwell’ in the ruin – without any impatient reaching after fact or explaining away ruins in the terms of an established tradition of theorizing in organization – and open up new analytic spaces and associations for organizational researchers. These concern specifically (a) a distinctive approach to time, history and memory; (b) an increased awareness of the multiplicity of forces impinging on organization, forces from which we so easily retreat behind the cordon sanitaire of organization-studies-as-usual; and (c) a cognisance of how the very way we write is a mode of doing organization that is crucial for our ability and willingness to look into ‘all corners of reality’ so that we might better grasp organizational phenomena.
KW - Benjamin
KW - Catastrophe
KW - Ethnography
KW - History
KW - Memory
KW - Spatiality
KW - Ruin
KW - Sebald
KW - Benjamin
KW - Catastrophe
KW - Ethnography
KW - History
KW - Memory
KW - Spatiality
KW - Ruin
KW - Sebald
UR - https://sfx-45cbs.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/45cbs?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&url_ctx_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info:sid/sfxit.com:azlist&sfx.ignore_date_threshold=1&rft.object_id=954921376726
U2 - 10.1177/0170840616640311
DO - 10.1177/0170840616640311
M3 - Journal article
VL - 38
SP - 129
EP - 150
JO - Organization Studies
JF - Organization Studies
SN - 0170-8406
IS - 1
ER -