Something happened : spectres of organization/disorganization at the airport

Knox, Hannah and O'Doherty, Damian and Vurdubakis, Theodore and Westrup, Chris (2015) Something happened : spectres of organization/disorganization at the airport. Human Relations, 68 (6). pp. 1001-1020. ISSN 0018-7267

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Abstract

The article explores the practical accomplishment of organization at an international airport during the course of a number of ‘security alerts’ that disrupted routine ‘modes of ordering’ (Law, 1994). Airports, we suggest, invite us to re-think ‘organization’ as the partial, contingent and always-incomplete outcome of complex order(ing)s and disorder(ing)s played out across various spaces, agencies and materials. When ‘something happens’ we begin to see how spaces, agents and materials are subject to unexpected becomings: objects appear treacherous, spaces mutable, agencies ineffectual and informants unreliable. Following the work of Weick we might say that in such moments of uncertainty we are forced to reconsider our customary ways of thinking about objects, subjects and systems. We argue this thinking requires a relational understanding of organization so that we can better grasp how organizations are continuously being made and un-made through an on-going co-creation and dispersal of parts.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Human Relations
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1400/1408
Subjects:
?? disorderprocess theoryrelationalitysense-making spectralitystrategy and managementgeneral social sciencesmanagement of technology and innovationsocial sciences(all) ??
ID Code:
74055
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
18 Jun 2015 06:00
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Jul 2024 09:45