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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
scos21_hedgerows.pdf