Marita Susanna Svane

Counternarrative and antenarrative inquiry in two cross-cultural contexts

We developed a theory of an antenarrative practices in relation to the interplay of dominant cultural narratives and counternarratives of resistance. Antenarrative is defined here as the field of forces Before, Between, Beneath, Bets and Becoming that occurs in the reduction of diverse living stories of Self to hegemonic narratives and counternarratives. We contribute two case studies of the ways antenarrative processes accomplish the hegemony, and the resistance occurring between dominant narrative and counternarrative. In the first case, dominant cultural narratives of homelessness are resisted by counternarrative theatrical performances by developing micropolitic antenarrative threads to bring what is Before, Beneath, Between, and Becoming to the fore, so that alternative Bets on the future become presented to audiences. We also offer an antenarrative inquiry into counternarrative and narrative cultural stereotypical representations of race, class and gender, and offer theory and methodology resources for a more meaningful understanding of homeless life and cultures. The second case explores narrative-counternarrative and antenarrative inquiry into a cross-cultural merger between two companies. Both cases contribute to how the storytelling world is an interplay of dominant narratives and their counternarratives, and the undercurrent of antenarrative processes.

Against professionalizing leadership: the roles of self-formation and practical wisdom in leadership

Based on the concepts self-formation and phronesis (practical wisdom), this chapter argues against professionalizing leadership. Professionalization implies rules, guidelines, procedures and accreditation standards in relation to contents, curricula and the pedagogy of education. It thus misconceives the role of leadership education to be only a question of acquiring epistemic (rational and universal) knowledge and skills while it fails to acknowledge techne as craft and art, and local and situated awareness and sensitivity. Practical wisdom involves all dimensions. Leadership education is important because of its potential to nurture a creative, critical and responsible relation to the world. Leadership thus requires a practice-based educational program and a “free space” for experimentation, reflection and self-formation, which is inconsistent with turning leadership into a profession.

Ethics Perspective on Entrepreneurship

Bager, Svane, and Jorgensen, building on Arendt, Butler, and Bakhtin, propose a conceptual framework for understanding ethics in relation to entrepreneurship. The concepts of precarity, action, answerability, and space of appearance are used to conceptualize challenges and possibilities, as well as to problematize current neoliberal discourses concerning entrepreneurship. Their framework seeks to provide some signposts within which the question of entrepreneurial ethics can be located. It is also an alternative way of viewing ethics from the dominant neoliberal ethos; this is an ethics of answerability, action, and pluralism. Through their framework, the authors put the spotlight on what an ethical act is in terms of how it connects to the world but also the space of ethics and what that means in relation to making entrepreneurial ethics more likely.

Dialogue and Power

Dialogue and power can be interpreted as opposites, though this need not necessarily be the case. In the following section, we focus on the area of conflict between an approach of dialogue and an approach of power in relations between people in an organisational context. Both approaches are interesting when seen from a relational perspective, as both power and dialogue can be understood as constituent parts of co-constructed social realities. Previously, we have mentioned that people in organisations communicate with each other and co-construct social realities by producing, reproducing and coordinating shared meaning together, and that socially and relationally constructed realities permit collaboration and coordinated action in an organisation.