Using a narrative approach unique to organizational studies, Czarniawska employs literary devices to uncover the hidden workings of organizations. She shows how the interpretive description of organizational worlds works as a distinct genre of social analysis, and her investigations ultimately disclose the paradoxical nature of organizational life: we follow routine in order to change, and decentralize in order to control. By confronting such paradoxes, we bring crisis to existing institutions and enable them to change.
Using a narrative approach unique to organizational studies, Czarniawska employs literary devices to uncover the hidden workings of organizations. She shows how the interpretive description of organizational worlds works as a distinct genre of social analysis, and her investigations ultimately disclose the paradoxical nature of organizational life: we follow routine in order to change, and decentralize in order to control. By confronting such paradoxes, we bring crisis to existing institutions and enable them to change.
The Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (Women's Autonomous Movement) in Nicaragua - birthed in part from the Sandinista Revolution of the 1980s - represents one of the largest, most diverse, and most autonomous women's movements in all of Latin America. While it's true that scholars across a wide range of disciplines have written invariably about this social movement (and have been instrumental in arguing that these women are not mere victims, but individuals who have worked hard to resist oppression and fight injustice for decades) what remains missing from this body of work is scholarship aimed at understanding, specifically, the psychology of resistance; in other words, what are the psychological mechanisms and methodologies that emerge from the margins that determine the kind of social action that revolutionizes societies? Investigating the psychosocial processes behind resistance is critical to understanding a commitment to justice and the development of subjectivity necessary for enacting the political activity required for social transformation. Psychology, in particular, as author Shelly Grabe argues, is positioned to engage in a systematic exploration of the links between social and political conditions that determine how, why, and under what circumstances resistance emerges. Narrating a Psychology of Resistance documents the first-hand accounts of the Nicaraguan women's Movimiento: a coordinated mobilization of women that has weathered unremitting power differentials characterized by patriarchy and capitalism. In this collection of testimonios, Grabe gives voice to these extraordinary women and closely examines how psychological processes that emerge in response to sociopolitical oppression can lead to gendered justice and the revolutionizing of societies at large.
The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods provides a state-of–the art overview of qualitative research methods in the business and management field. Bringing together a team of leading international researchers, the chapters offer a comprehensive overview of the key methods and challenges encountered when undertaking qualitative research in the field. The chapters have been arranged into three thematic parts: Part One examines a broad spectrum of contemporary methods, from autoethnography and discourse analysis, to shadowing and thematic analysis. Part Two presents an overview of key visual methods, such as photographs, drawing, video and web images. Part Three explores methodological developments, including aesthetics and smell, fuzzy set comparative analysis, and beyond.
Narrative constitutes an integral part of human existence, being omnipresent in our ordering of the world and the ways in which we transmit both knowledge and experience. Narrative construction has challenged the supremacy of empirical fact and has questioned our ability to know the past Aas it really was. Examining a wide range of texts, from ancient Greece and medieval Britain to contemporary America, Asia, Australia, Britain and the Caribbean, the essays in this volume address the inconsistencies in master narratives to reveal that all representations of the past, like knowledge, are situated.
David Collins, a well respected scholar of management gurus proves a critical reappraisal of the very influential work of Tom Peters. This volume examines his key works and reviews his detractors, offering an analysis of his contributions to the field of management that goes beyond the simple chronological model that has previously been used. Collins focuses on the changing narratives of Tom Peters and proposes a four-fold narrative typlogy to explore this guru's evolving account of the business of management. The book argues that Peters' success as a guru derives from his abilities as a storyteller. The author notes a decline in Peters' storytelling and an increasing reliance on certain story types. Furthermore he observes that this guru now tends to place himself at the centre of his narratives of business and change. On the strength of this analysis Collins concludes that Peters has 'lost the plot' and argues that new and more appropriate, narratives must be sought and developed. Critical and compelling, this excellent book is a must read for all students and instructors working across the management spectrum, especially in the areas of management, organizational behaviour, change management and corporate strategy.
Ethnography is at the heart of what researchers in management and organization studies do. This crucial book offers a robust and original overview of ‘doing’ organizational ethnography, guiding readers through the essential qualitative methods for the study of organizations.
Narrating Human Rights in Africa claims human rights from the perspective of artists from the African continent and situates the key theoretical concepts in African perspectives, undercutting the stereotypes of victimhood and voicelessness. Instead of positioning literary texts as illustrative of points already theorized elsewhere, the author foregrounds the literature itself to show the concepts it offers, the ideas and responses stemming from complex historical circumstances in Africa and expressed by African writers. The book focuses on how narrative creates new categories of thought challenging human rights dogma, whereas the sum of the literary voices evoked also stands by the values of social justice and protection of human rights. The chapters take up key challenges to the narration of human rights in which the contribution of African writers is particularly important. This includes human dignity in the resistance to apartheid, the figure of the child soldier, how humanitarianism’s images affect representational strategies of contemporary African writers, the challenge of testifying about rape in war, how to evoke the disappeared body of the torture victim, the centrality of flight in the refugee and migrant experiences, and finally the long shadow of the "heart of darkness" motif. Offering a sustained examination of the narrative treatment of key human rights concerns as expressed by African writers, this book will be of interest to scholars of African literature, postcolonial studies, African studies, and human rights.
Constructing Identity in and around Organizations is the second volume in Perspectives on Process Organization Studies, a series which explores an emerging approach to the study of organizations that focuses on (understanding) activities, interactions, and change as essential properties of organizations rather than structures and state - an approach which prioritizes activity over product, change over persistence, novelty over continuity, and expression over determination. The constructing of identities - those processes through which actors in and around organizations claim, accept, negotiate, affirm, stabilize, maintain, reproduce, challenge, disrupt, destabilize, repair or otherwise relate to their sense of selves and others - has become a critically important topic in the study of organizations. This volume attempts to amplify - and possibly refract - contemporary debates amongst identity scholars that question established notions of identity as "essence", "entity," or "thing". It calls for alternative approaches to understanding identity and its significance in contexts in and around organizations by conceptualizing it as "process" - that is, being continually under construction. Based in diverse theoretical and philosophical traditions and contexts, contributions by leading scholars to this volume offer new perspectives on how individual and organizational identities evolve and come to be constructed through ongoing activities and interactions.
Analysing a variety of international films and, ultimately, placing them in dialogue with video art, photographic narratives and emerging digital image-based technologies, the contributions explore the expanding range of ‘mediated’ narratives of contemporary architecture and urban culture from both a media and a sociological standpoint. Each chapter presents an interesting critical approach to the diversity of topics with clear explanation of the contextual framework and methodology, and a consistent depth of analysis. In the three sections of the book, authors underline the continual role of film and media in creating moving image narratives of the city, identifying how it creates cinematic – and ever more frequently digital – topographies of contemporary urban culture and architecture, re-presenting familiar cities, modes of seeing, cultures and social questions in unfamiliar ways. This filmic emphasis is placed into dialogue with a more diverse range of related visual media, which illustrates the overlaps between them and reveals how moving image technologies create unique visual topographies of contemporary urban culture and architecture. In making this shift from the filmic to the new age of digital image making and alternative modes of image consumption, the book not only reveals new techniques of representation, mediation and the augmentation of sensorial reality for city dwellers; its emphasis on ‘narrative’ offers insights into critical societal issues. These include cultural identity, diversity, memory and spatial politics, as they are both informed by and represented in various media. The focus for the book is on how films can produce mediation of urban life and culture by connecting the notions of identity, diversity and memory. Both the subject and the approach are gaining in popularity in recent years. This book's main feature is its dual perspective, involving both practical and theoretical stances – and it is this approach that makes it a particularly relevant and original contribution. Primary readership will be academics, scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students and practitioners interested in architecture and media in general, film, moving images, urban studies in particular. Also of relevance to sociologists and those interested in cultural theory. The inclusion of chapters on urban photography and art installations may also be of interest to students and designers in these areas.
Stories and narratives are powerful tools for explaining the world around us. This book explores storytelling as a way of engaging audiences with sustainable development issues and reflects on the opportunities and limitations of storytelling for sustainability as an innovative approach to sustainability communication. Bringing together voices and perspectives from research and practice, this volume explores the ways in which storytelling can support change toward sustainability. Unlike other anthologies, the book first provides a sound scientific basis by unfolding the storytelling approach and presenting empirical studies on its impact on effects. It clarifies important terms and presents recent findings on the impact of storytelling on sustainability from an extensive 3-year research project on this question. The second part shows how storytelling can be used in different fields of practice to communicate sustainability in more engaging and effective ways. Here, the main focus is on not only case-based accounts of positive change, but also tensions, arising from the application of storytelling for sustainability in journalism, higher education, corporate communication, or science communication. Combining theory with practical examples, this innovative book will be a great resource for students and scholars of environmental communication and sustainable development, as well as professionals working in related fields.