Impossible organisations: anarchism and organisational praxis

Reedy, Patrick

Abstract

Organisational scholarship tends to focus its attention mainly on conventional work organisations and so neglects the organisational practices and principles of other sites of organising. The paper considers the implications of this limited focus even within more critical scholarship through a close reading of a recent paper calling for a greater engagement with social movements. Specifically, I consider problems of understanding a phenomenon in terms of what it is not and evaluating alternative sites of organisation using conventional categories of analysis. I then go on to outline the potential contribution of anarchist theory and its enactment by recent anti-capitalist movements. These radically different approaches to organisation are evaluated and I argue that they present a profound challenge to mainstream assumptions. The paper concludes that critical organisational theory has much to learn from an engagement with such alternative sites of organisation but only if a determined attempt is made to move beyond the usual theoretical frameworks and that anarchist theory may help us do this.

Citation

Reedy, P. (2014). Impossible organisations: anarchism and organisational praxis. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization, 14(4), 639-658

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Mar 17, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 17, 2016
• Journal: Ephemera : theory & politics in organization
• Print ISSN: 2052-1499
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 639-658
• Keywords: Organization
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/433747
• Publisher URL: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/impossible-organisations-anarchism-and-organisational-praxis
• Additional Information: Copy of article first published in: Ephemera : theory & politics in organization, 201-, v.14, issue 4
• Contract Date: Mar 17, 2016