Narrative environments: how do they matter?

The significance and possible senses of the phrase 'narrative environment' are explored. It is argued that 'narrative environment' is not only polysemous but also paradoxical; not only representational but also performative; and not just performatively repetitive but also reflexive and constitutive. As such, it is useful for understanding the world of the early 21st century. Thus, while the phrase narrative environment can be used to denote highly capitalised, highly regulated corporate forms, i.e. "brandscapes", it can also be understood as a metaphor for the emerging reflexive knowledge-work-places in the ouroboric, paradoxical economies of the 21st century. Narrative environments are the media and the materialities through which we come to comprehend that world and to act in those economies. Narrative environments are therefore, sophistically, performative-representative both of the corporate dominance of life worlds and of the undoing of that dominance, through the iterative responses to the paradoxical injunction: "learn to live"

The Contemporary Encyclopedic Novel

This dissertation will define the contemporary American encyclopedic novel and the significant role that irony plays in shaping meaning. The dissertation constructs a model of the encyclopedic novel based upon the history of the encyclopedia – from Denis Diderot\u27s Enlightenment influenced Encyclopédie – and Northrop Frye\u27s conception of the encyclopedic form. It claims (1) that the contemporary encyclopedic novel continues in the cycle of modal progression toward mythic integration that Frye proposes in Anatomy of Criticism; and (2) that the encyclopedic novel utilizes different forms of irony to challenge authoritative discourse and elevate marginal discourse. The first chapter defines the encyclopedic novel by examining the history of the encyclopedia and existing criticism on the encyclopedic text in literature. It draws on theorists such as Denis Diderot and Richard Yeo to define an “encyclopedic project” that adopts a dialogic rhetorical style and seeks to democratize access to information. This chapter also defines the encyclopedic novel as a generic form that combines other forms into a unified whole and utilizes irony as a tool for integration. The second and third chapters form a thematic pairing that shows the self-reflexive progression of the encyclopedic novel from individualistic to humanistic focus. The second chapter argues that Thomas Pynchon\u27s Gravity\u27s Rainbow is an “anarchistic encyclopedic novel” that promotes associational thinking – in the form of paranoia, open forms, and horizontal transmission of knowledge. Gravity\u27s Rainbow adopts a disintegrative irony to empower the oppressed individual against industry-state collusion in the post-WWII era. The third chapter argues that David Foster Wallace\u27s Infinite Jest seeks to reinvent irony as an integrative force and redirect Pynchon\u27s individualistic anarchism toward an inclusive humanism. The fourth chapter demonstrates a break from both of the preceding chapter and argues that Leon Forrest\u27s Divine Days adopts a syndetic model of composition that further works to incorporate forms and integrate irony. Using Northrop Frye\u27s “interpenetration,” I argue that Divine Days integrates competing traditions and discourses by demonstrating their mutual-necessity. In the concluding chapter, I examine “meta-encyclopedic” by Jorge Luis Borges and Roberto Bolaño as an extension of the dissertation

A Case for Clinical Qualitative Research*

For the most part, that which is called qualitative research has been developed, understood, and justified within scientific and quantitative contexts. Sharing common interests (e.g., description, interpretation, criticism, subjectivity, etc.) with this scientific qualitative research are two contrasting traditions of research and practice, which have originated and evolved in domains of inquiry other than science and technology, namely those methods and ways of knowing from the arts and humanities, and from the clinical fields. This latter type, clinical qualitative or practitioner-generated research, is defined and contrasted with the scientific and artistic varieties. A number of clinical qualitative research projects are presented from the field of family therapy, which demonstrate how clinical inquiry may be conducted from a therapist\u27s way of acting and knowing, or may be focused on learning more about a therapist\u27s way of practicing and thinking in the world. Finally, implications of conducting clinical qualitative research or practitioner-generated inquiry in traditional research environments is discussed

Organizing for Fluidity? Dilemmas of New Organizational Forms

An important new stream of thought stressing the importance of organizational fluidity has emerged in recent years. It represents a reaction to the increasing complexity and environmental turbulence that organizations have to master. The solutions proposed are highly flexible and fluid organizational forms, based on relentlessly changing templates, quick improvisation, and ad- hoc responses. This approach is in sharp contrast to other recent organizational research that emphasizes identity, path dependence, economies of specialization, and recursive practices. We juxtapose the idea of organizational fluidity with this latter stream of research. If taken to its final conclusion, then the idea of promoting organizational fluidity would imply losing the very essence of organizing. Nevertheless, achieving organizational flexibility remains imperative in increasingly complex and volatile environments. To deal with this dilemma, an alternative approach is needed. We suggest a conceptualization of this dilemma that emphasizes the complementary dynamics between the two perspectives. We therefore provide an alternative conception that favors the idea of balancing countervailing processes in organizations with respect to the conflicting demands of organizational efficiency and fluidity

Tensions as a framework for managing work in collaborative workplaces: A review of the empirical studies

Companies are increasingly implementing Collaborative Workplaces (CWs) to promote office collaboration and flexibility. Despite the rapid diffusion of CWs across industries and organizations, research findings suggest that their benefits often fail to materialize due to the existence of tensions and contradictions that develop through the daily actions and interactions of workplace users. This literature review sheds some light on the development of tensions and contradictions in CWs by focusing on their implications for social relations at work. This review identifies the oppositional tensions that surface in CW research findings: flexibility vs. structure, fluidity vs. stability, and exposure vs. privacy. In disclosing the underlying mechanisms, this study connects these tensions and their management to the autonomy-control paradox that emerges in CWs. It concludes by suggesting some approaches that are available to managers to assist them in dealing with tensions and unleash creativity, participation, and adaptability

Information Infastructure as Organization: A Critical Realist View

The notion of information infrastructures, introduced in the 1990s and refined during the past ten years, has proven quite fruitful to the IS field. It changed the perspective from organizations to networks and from systems to infrastructures, allowing for a global and emergent perspective on information systems. However, something is missing in this theory. What is an information infrastructure, ontologically? Is it a technical structure, an organizational form, an analytical perspective or a semantic network? This paper reviews the socio-technical origins of information infrastructures. Two propositions are described and discussed. First, that it is fruitful to regard information infrastructure as an ICT-based organizational form. Second, a critical realist view allows us to conceptualise the object of study in a simpler and more intuitive way. A case study of an airline company and a reinterpretation of Star and Ruhleder’s classic paper were used to illustrate the claims

"I Am Like the Unicorn": Desiring Language

There is a question of philology. “Where are you going to?” Socrates asks his lover Phaedrus. “I am going for a walk outside the walls”, he answers. While walking, Phaedrus tells Socrates, a “philological man”, about the conversation about love, the logos erotikos, a language of love and love for language that he had with Lysias. “Plato’s ‘philologist’ is a friend and lover of language as that which is the language of love and self-loving language. [...] Language loves. Whoever loves it like the philologist, loves the love in it”, Werner Hamacher suggests in a reading of the scene. is philological text attempts to trace the reins set on this love throughout a certain fragment of philosophy, to tease out the gay science (or as Nietzsche also puts it, “queer reason”) that allows it to proceed. […