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- Volume 4, Issue, 1999
Concepts and Transformation - Volume 4, Issue 3, 1999
Volume 4, Issue 3, 1999
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Modernity as History of Time
Author(s): Zygmunt Baumannpp.: 229–248 (20)More LessOur understanding of space and time has developed according to the means we have used to control or traverse them: from muscle power via heavy vehicles to the computer. Where once a day's journey was an undertaking, software has now shrunk distance to nothing. Information travels with the speed of light. This has had its effect on the relationships between the controllers and the controlled. From the relationship of serf to seigneur, this relationship devolved into the 'marriage for life' of capital and labor, enshrined in the miles-long factories with high walls of the industrial age. Now this has gone, to be replaced by the seductive lightness of being, by the disembodiment of labour by the new entrepreneur, his capital always inflight, seeking new deals with the speed of an electronic signal.
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Managing, Subjectivities and Desires
Author(s): John Law and Ingunn Moserpp.: 249–279 (31)More LessThe position that no particular theory, whether a theory of lack or one of intensity, can grasp what is most important about desire is extended and located in the context of a formal organization, dealing in particular with managerial subjectivities. The concerns ventilated are related to action research, in particular the concern for understanding management and organization and engaging in a process of change — here called interfering and making a difference. Social theory here is seen as a set of stories and theorizing as a political activity: ontological politics.
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Toward a Science of Qualities in Organizations: Lessons from Complexity Theory and Postmodern Biology
Author(s): Peter Reason and Brian Goodwinpp.: 281–317 (37)More LessThe development of complexity theory in the natural sciences is described, and summarized in six principles of complex emergent wholes. It is suggested that complexity theory is leading biology toward a science of qualities based on participation and intuition. It is argued on metaphorical and epistemological grounds that these principles which describe the emergence of complex wholes can be applied to social and organizational life. The six principles are then applied to qualitative and action research practice, with a particular reference to co-operative inquiry, in order to provide principles for good practice and theoretical support for the nature of valid inquiry processes.
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