University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/55588 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. The Political Event Impossibilities of Repositioning Organisation Theory Steffen G. Böhm Thesis submittedin partial fulfilment of the requirementsfor the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy University of Warwick Warwick Business School September2003 For my parents, Ingeborg and Matthias Contents List Illustrations of ............................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. v Declaration .......................................................................................................... vi Abstract ............................................................................................................... vii Preface: The PassageAhead ................................................................................ix 1. IMAGESOF ORGANISATIONTHEORY 1 ....................................................................... Positioning Organisation 2 ........................................................................................ Depositioning Organisation 15 ................................................................................. Repositioning Organisation 21 .................................................................................. 2. THE POLITICALEVENT 30 . ......................................................................................... The Politics Discontinuity 33 of ............................................................................... The Politics Destruction 48 of .................................................................................. The Politics Deconstruction 64 of ............................................................................. The Politics Impossibility 70 of ................................................................................ 3. POSITIONINGORGANISATION: THE HEGEMONYOF MANAGEMENTKNOWLEDGE.... 87 Organisation, Management the Knowledge Society 90 and ....................................... `Techknow ledgy' 100 ............................................................................................... Knowledge as `Shock' Event 107 and ...................................................................... Knowledge Manager, Fidneur and Prostitute 120 ..................................................... Hegemony the Fetish Knowledge Commodity 128 and ............................................ 4. DEPOSITIONINGORGANISATION: THE POLITICS RESISTANCE 142 OF .......................... Organisation Multiple Process 143 as .................................................................. The `Psychologism' Social Constructionism 156 of .................................................. The Pluralistic Politics Social Constructionism 169 of .............................................. Discourse the Possibility `Post-dualistic' Transparency 180 and of ........................... Impossibilities Depositioning: The Event Resistance 189 of of ................................. 5. REPOSITIONINGORGANISATION: IMPOSSIBILITIES `THE MOVEMENT' 195 OF .............. Labour Process Politics 197 ...................................................................................... Liberalist Politics in Praise Bureaucracy 206 of ........................................................ The Political Organisation New Social Movements 215 of ....................................... The `Anti-Capitalist Movement' 229 ........................................................................ The Impossible Event Repositioning 239 of ............................................................. 6. IN-CONCLUSIONS: HOPEFUL FAILURES 253 ............................................................... Abbreviations 273 .................................................................................................... References 275 ......................................................................................................... iii List of Illustrations At the entrance to Dani Karavan's monument `Passages', Portbou, Spain........... viii After the tunnel `Passages' entering of .............................................................. xxiii Inside Paris, 19th 141 an arcade, century ................................................................... Stairs towards the the `Passages' 252 exit of monument ........................................... A Portbou Bay `Passages' 272 view of and ............................................................... IV Acknowledgments This thesis is the product of a journey. Over the years I have met many exceptional people on this journey: people who have inspired me, who have made me think and who have taught me to read and write. While it would be impossible to name everybody here who has helped, in some way or another, to make this thesis happen, I would like to express my gratitude to some people specifically. First, my special thanks go to my supervisors, Gibson Burrell and Karen Dale, who have been a great support in what have sometimes been difficult times. Especially during the final stages they have gone to great lengths to comment on manuscripts and help pulling things together. I owe them a lot. I would also like to thank Christian De Cock, Campbell Jonesand Chris Land for the many discussionsthat have helped me to form the ideas explored in this thesis. Their friendship and inspiration has meant a lot. Campbell Jones was also kind enoughto comment on a draft of this thesis. Many thanks to Martin Brigham, Deborah Dean, Jenny Drewett, Sophia Jones, lain Munro and Torkild Thanem who have made my time at Warwick a special Warwick one. My thanks also go to the people who run the PhD Programme at Business School, especially Lesley Inness and Jan Woodley. Department Between September 2001 and January 2002 1 was visiting the of Marie Management, Philosophy and Politics at Copenhagen Business School as a I Curie Fellow and have since then returned to Copenhagen many times. would like to thank everyone who has made my stays in Copenhagen so intellectually Soren Buhl challenging and pleasant. My special thanks go to Thomas Basboll, Meier Pedersen, Christine Frandsen and particularly Martin Fuglsang and Bent Sorensen whose enthusiasm has had a great influence on me. Martin I would also like to mention Attila Bruni, Alessia Contu, Bob Cooper, Corbett, Peter Fleming, Rolland Munro, Andrew Pettigrew, Andre Spicer and to Rend ten Bos who have all contributed, in their own different ways, my intellectual journey over the past few years. have Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to my parents, Ingeborg and Matthias, who Vicky for her made this journey possible in so many ways. My love also goes to done it tremendous support during the last few months. I could not have without her. V Declaration This thesis is entirely the work of the author and has not been submitted for a degreeat another university. vi Abstract In this thesis I outline a political problem of positioning organisation theory. I maintain that there are projects of positioning, depositioning and repositioning, which articulate organisation in different political ways. To dialectically critique the politics of these projects I discuss the way philosophers of destruction, deconstruction and impossibility conceptualise the political event. I argue that these speculative philosophies share a political belief in the need to question and show the limits of the ways social reality is positioned in the realms of modernity, capitalism and `Empire', and explore possibilities of how the world might look different. I maintain that the politics of the positioning project is to turn organisation into the hegemony of management, which I show by engaging with the particular discourse of knowledge management. The politics of the depositioning project is to resist the hegemony of management in multiple ways; I discuss particularly how organisation theorists emphasise the precariousness, plurality and locality of processes of organising. Although the political resistances by the depositioning project are of great importance, I argue that there is a tendency to not link their politics to questions of hegemony, which I show to have certain depoliticising effects. In response to these failures, the politics of the repositioning project aims to repoliticise organisation theory by speculating about a new hegemony of social organisation. My engagement with the so-called 'anti- capitalist movement' and questions of its organisation and politics shows, however, that such an attempt of repositioning is itself an impossible or undecidable event. Nevertheless, I argue that it is precisely this political event of impossibility that calls for a speculative decision to be made; a decision, however, which will always fail to fully represent social organisation. VII At the entrance to Dani Karavan's monument `Passages', Portbou, Spain Preface: The Passage Ahead To set the scene for the task ahead, let us begin by travelling back in time, by embarking on a little journey into the history