Torkild Thanem

Living on the edge : Towards a monstrous organization theory

Following the recent curiosity for monsters in social and organizational research, this paper questions the power, purity and boundaries of organization by accentuating its risky encounters with heterogeneous, monstrous bodies. In an attempt to problematize organization theory’s implicit dissociation of monsters from organization, the understanding and treatment of monsters is traced across a variety of discursive formations in Western history—from Medieval and Renaissance theology and medicine, via Classical life science, freak shows and contemporary performance art, to recent social science and organization theory. Invoking Deleuze and Guattari’s (1988) work on creative involution, the paper goes beyond previous social and organizational research in thinking the radicality of monsters, and it concludes with an argument for a monstrous organization theory that: (i) encourages organizational researchers to critically reflect about their own monstrosity; (ii) challenges the stigmatization of monstrous embodiment; and (iii) delves into bodies that live on the edge and disrupt organizational boundaries.

The body without organs: nonorganizational desire in organizational life

In an attempt to challenge the status of the organizational, this paper proposes a ‘nonorganizational’ turn towards embodiment and desire. Introducing and critically discussing Deleuze and Guattaris (1988) notion of the ‘body without organs’ (BwO), it argues that this may improve organization theorys opportunities to think about the forces of embodied desire that disrupt, undermine and escape organization, upset the homogeneity of organizational life, and overpower organizations to such an extent that they cease to be organizations. Rather than adding more ‘organization’ to ‘organizational life’, this may be a way to put more ‘life’ into it. And rather than deeming organization more powerful, this may be a way to recognize its limitations and fragility.In an attempt to challenge the status of the organizational, this paper proposes a ‘nonorganizational’ turn towards embodiment and desire. Introducing and critically discussing Deleuze and Guattaris (1988) notion of the ‘body without organs’ (BwO), it argues that this may improve organization theorys opportunities to think about the forces of embodied desire that disrupt, undermine and escape organization, upset the homogeneity of organizational life, and overpower organizations to such an extent that they cease to be organizations. Rather than adding more ‘organization’ to ‘organizational life’, this may be a way to put more ‘life’ into it. And rather than deeming organization more powerful, this may be a way to recognize its limitations and fragility.

‘There’s no limit to how much you can consume’ : the New Public Health and the struggle to manage healthy bodies

During the past decade or so, organization studies has witnessed a small but growing interest in the human body, in health, and in the management of life beyond organizational boundaries. In light of this development, this paper investigates how the New Public Health seeks to construct and manage people as healthy bodies beyond the boundaries of formal work organizations. The paper does so through a discourse analysis of a UK health campaign on healthy eating. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of governmentality, the paper discusses the power, limitations and subversion of this campaign by problematizing the neo‐liberal managerialism that it actualizes. Finally, it discusses what implications this has for the New Public Health and for organization studies.

Feeling and speaking through our gendered bodies: embodied self-reflection and research practice in organisation studies

Despite the growing organisational literature on the gendered body, we argue that much of this literature remains disembodied. We therefore seek to further embody the study of gendered bodies and organisations by viewing the body as lived gendered embodiment and by writing our own viscerally embodied experiences into our discussion. We flrst discuss the phenomenological approach to lived gendered embodiment and how this has been utilised in organisation studies. We then discuss how research on lived gendered embodiment might become more viscerally self-reflective. Throughout, we integrate these discussions with our own visceral and gendered self-reflections from teaching and research.

Embodying disability in diversity management research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce an embodied approach to disability into the field of diversity management research.Design/methodology/approach – The paper critically examines previous diversity management research and it draws on previous disability research in the social sciences to develop an embodied approach to disability for diversity management research.Findings – The paper argues that an embodied approach is required because previous diversity management research on disability ignores important aspects of disability.Research limitations/implications – The embodied approach to disability proposed in this paper expands the understanding of disability in diversity management research, and it discusses implications for future research and for organizations.Originality/value – The paper is unique in proposing an embodied approach to disability in diversity management research.

Affective politics in gendered organizations: affirmative notes on becoming-woman

Current approaches to the study of affective relations are over-determined in a way that ignores their radicality, yet abstracted to such an extent that the corporeality and differentially lived experience of power and resistance is neglected. To radicalize the potential of everyday affects, this article calls for an intensification of corporeality in affect research. We do this by exploring the affective trajectory of ‘becoming-woman’ introduced by Deleuze and Guattari. Becoming-woman is a process of gendered deterritorialization and a specific variation on becoming-minoritarian. Rather than a reference to empirical women, becoming-woman is a necessary force of critique against the phallogocentric powers that shape and constrain working lives in gendered organizations. While extant research on gendered organizations tends to focus on the overwhelming power of oppressive gender structures, engaging with becoming-woman releases affective flows and possibilities that contest and transgress the increasingly subtle and confusing ways in which gendered organization affects people at work. Through becoming-woman, an affective and affirmative politics capable of resisting the effects of gendered organization becomes possible. This serves to further challenge gendered oppression in organizations and to affirm a life beyond the harsh limits that gender can impose.

What can bodies do? Reading Spinoza for an affective ethics of organizational life

Recent attempts to develop an embodied understanding of ethics in organizations have tended to mobilize a Levinasian and ‘im/possible’ ethics of recognition, which separates ethics and embodiment from politics and organization. We argue that this separation is unrealistic, unsustainable, and an unhelpful starting point for an embodied ethics of organizations. Instead of rescuing and modifying the ethics of recognition, we propose an embodied ethics of organizational life through Spinoza’s affective ethics. Neither a moral rule system nor an infinite duty to recognize the other, Spinoza offers a theory of the good, powerful and joyful life by asking what bodies can do. Rather than an unrestrained, irresponsible and individualistic quest for power and freedom, this suggests that we enhance our capacities to affect and be affected by relating to a variety of different bodies. We first scrutinize recent attempts to develop an ethics of recognition and embodiment in organization studies. We then explore key concepts and central arguments of Spinozian ethics. Finally, we discuss what a Spinozian ethics means for the theory and practice of embodied ethics in organizational life.

All talk and no movement? Homeless coping and resistance to urban planning

Privileging the discursive expression of micro-resistance while exploiting spatial metaphors such as cynical distancing and escape, recent work in Critical Management Studies (CMS) has tended to find resistance everywhere without actually examining its spatial whereabouts. Utilizing a spatial approach, this article therefore investigates how homeless people in Stockholm not only resisted but also coped otherwise with two urban planning projects that intended to drive them away from two public places. Whereas some of the homeless subverted the planners’ intentions by returning, others confirmed their intentions by leaving. The article further discusses the nomadic nature of these movements and how they were related to homeless discourses of apathy, cynicism and contentment. Finally, it discusses what implications this may have for homeless people and urban planning organizations, and for the understanding of resistance in CMS.

Just doing gender? Transvestism and the power of underdoing gender in everyday life and work

While previous research in organization studies has utilized transgender to show how gender is done, overdone and undone, this literature lacks empirical grounding, and the theoretical arguments dominating it tend to idealize the transgressive power of transgender while reducing transgender to hyperbolic drag and stereotypical passing. To further advance the understanding of transgender within and around organizations, this article presents a qualitative study from a Northern European country to investigate how male-to-female transvestites do and undo gender in everyday life and work. In contrast to extant research, we found that participants did transgender and undid gender by underdoing gender, that is, by combining feminine, masculine and ungendered practices and attributes in ways that made passing and drag insignificant. As transvestites simultaneously expressed masculine and feminine forms of embodiment, we argue that they may more obviously challenge, though not dismantle, dominant forms of gender and identity than suggested by previous accounts. We conclude by discussing broader implications for the understanding of gender, identity, power and resistance in organizations.

More passion than the job requires? Monstrously transgressive leadership in the promotion of health at work:

Despite Weber’s early emphasis on passionate emotions in charismatic leadership, and a recent but broader interest in the embodied and emotional aspects of leadership, we still know relatively little about how passions are embodied in leadership. We also know little about how such passions may transgress formally and socially defined limits of leadership in organizations. Through a case of workplace health promotion this paper therefore investigates how people in organizational leadership roles passionately – and corporeally – transgress the limits of these roles whilst pursuing organizational change. Going beyond extant research, the paper argues that the leaders’ pursuit of health was driven by their own embodied passions as well as by organizational rationales, but that their passions were expressed in largely non-charismatic ways that de-motivated rather than motivated employees.