• The importance of hedgerows: the case for organisational 'rewilding'

    Author(s):
    Ian Rodwell (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    CityLIS, Place Studies
    Subject(s):
    Knowledge management, Organizational sociology, Place (Philosophy), Space, Storytelling
    Item Type:
    Conference paper
    Conf. Title:
    38th Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism (SCOS) 2021
    Conf. Org.:
    Copenhagen Business School
    Conf. Loc.:
    Virtual
    Conf. Date:
    5-6 July, 2021
    Tag(s):
    Organization theory, Space and place, Learning space design
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/h6ww-pw13
    Abstract:
    In this paper, I explore organisational space through the analogy of the hedgerow. This is a locale of difference that signifies the boundary it simultaneously enacts; a trickster landscape of 'semiotic uncertainty'; a place of unease but also one of congregation and exchange. I report on my research into the liminal spaces of organisational storytelling and how these can be conceptualised as 'hedgerows': seemingly non-productive spaces yet encouraging 'gatherings and paths crossing' and dissolving difference. However, like their natural counterparts, such spaces are under threat. The rise of prairie-like open plan offices brings the risk of uneasy visibility and unwelcome surveillance. And a potential new danger has now emerged. With remote working through Covid depopulating our former workplaces, have our homes transformed into Bachelard’s ‘nest’ (where we can hide away, ‘snug, concealed’) or have they become contested spaces infiltrated by the Zoom gaze of others? And what does this mean for our liminal spaces of storytelling, our organisational hedges in the Covid-emergent world? Will our hedgerows of old — the corridors, lifts, staircases and kitchens — bud and flower again? Or will new hedgerows flourish in the virtual space betwixt and between home and office?
    Metadata:
    xml
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    2 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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