The social potency of affect: Identification and power in the immanent structuring of practice
Abstract
We address the centrality of affect in structuring social practices, including those of organizing and managing. Social practices, it is argued, are contingent upon actors’ affectively charged involvement in immanent, yet indeterminate social relations. To understand this generative involvement, we commend a temporally-sensitive, critically-oriented theoretical framework, grounded in an affect-based ontology of practice. We demonstrate the relevance and credibility of this proposal through an analysis of the interactions of Board members in a UK consulting company.
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Biographies
Mark Thompson (PhD University of Cambridge) is Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at Cambridge Judge Business School, UK, and Visiting Professor at Surrey Business School. His research interests include exploring the affective implications of a practice perspective on people, organizations and technology, as well as digital service innovation in the public sector. He is a regular reviewer for a broad range of journals across the organizational and information systems fields. Full details can be found on Mark’s Faculty page: http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/faculty-research/faculty-a-z/mark-thompson/. [Email: [email protected]]
Hugh Willmott (PhD University of Manchester; Honorary PhD, Lund University) is Professor of Management at Cass Business School Research, City University and Research Professor in Organization Studies, Cardiff Business School, UK. He received his PhD from University of Manchester and previously held professorial appointments at UMIST (now Manchester Business School) and the Judge Business School, Cambridge and visiting appointments at the Universities of Lund, Uppsala, Sydney, Innsbruck and University of Technology Sydney. He has researched diverse aspects of organizations including managerial work, culture, control, corporate governance, management education, ethics, regulation and alternative organizations. He is currently Associate Editor of Academy of Management Review and was previously an Associate Editor of Organization. He has also served on the editorial boards of Accounting, Organizations and Society, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability and a range of management and organization journals including Journal of Management Studies and Organization Studies. Full details can be found on his homepage: https://sites.google.com/site/hughwillmottshomepage. [Email: [email protected]]
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Article first published online: October 12, 2015
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