In this article, we take stock of the ambivalent and contested nature of the sharing economy. Considering the ‘sharing economy’ as an umbrella construct and an essentially contested concept, we ...position the sharing economy as resting on three foundational cores: (1) Access economy, (2) Platform economy, and (3) Community-based economy. We show how each core holds distinct promises and paradoxes. This organizing framework shows how combining the cores can help sharing-economy initiatives to navigate certain tensions, but can also lead to new ones. We highlight the paradoxical nature of the sharing economy and make a case for balanced initiatives that combine the promises of each core while mitigating contradictions. We conclude by introducing the nine articles of the special issue, connecting their contributions to our organizing framework.
In this article, we build on the stakeholder-politics literature to investigate how corporate scandals transform political contexts and give impetus to the contentious movements of fringe ...stakeholders against multinational corporations (MNCs). Based on Adut’s scandal theory, we flesh out three scandal-related processes that directly affect political-opportunity structures (POSs) and the generation of social movements against MNCs: convergence of contention toward a single target, publicization of deviant practices, and contagion to other organizations. These processes reduce the obstacles to collective actions by fringe stakeholders by pushing corporate elites to be more sensitive to their claims, by decreasing MNCs’ capability to repress contentious movements, by forcing the targeted MNCs to formalize a policy to monitor and eradicate the controversial practices, and by helping fringe stakeholders find internal and external allies to support their claims. This conceptual model of scandals as catalysts of contentious actions contributes to a better understanding of stakeholder politics by unveiling the role of the political context in the coordination of fringe stakeholders.
Unionism renewal has been described as a hybridization process between ‘old’ and ‘new’ logics. Understanding how these two potentially conflicting logics might be combined, however, has so far ...received little attention. Through the study of the Fight for 15 (FF15) movement, we investigate how the old ‘collectivist’ logic of action‐oriented unions and the new ‘connectivist’ logic are being hybridized. To do so, we develop a mixed‐methods approach that combines interviews with Twitter data. We evidence three mechanisms through which the collectivist and connectivist logics are being hybridized, namely, imbrication, camouflage and cumulation. We suggest to name ‘flashmob unionism’ the hybrid logic of FF15, characterized by apparently spontaneous mobilizations, a loosely co‐ordinated organization, a personalized communication and online virality.
Often we unconsciously take for granted that there is not really an alternative to how we currently organize society – we tend to reify existing social order, misperceiving the way things are now as ...the way things must be. Such reification constrains our agency by discouraging the thought that we could do better. Alternative organizations undermine this reification by manifesting the real possibility of organizing differently. Such dereification is valuable in itself insofar as it lifts constraints on agency, facilitating intentional choice regarding the social systems we (re)produce. A case study of this dereification is offered by the Réseau Alimentaire Local (RAL), a network of French ‘solidarity groceries’ unified by the pursuit of more just and sustainable alternatives to the dominant model. Groups within the RAL develop their own software to manage these novel alternatives. We were struck, however, by some groups’ efforts to reify their own solutions, disparaging other approaches as mere attempts to ‘reinvent the wheel’. The case thus raised a tricky question: can alternative organizations dereify existing social order without at the same time reifying their proposal, thereby reimposing constraints on agency? Our exploration through the RAL case grounds two contributions. First, conceptualizing reification in terms of materializing abstract ideas, we demonstrate how any given organizational configuration contributes to the materialization of multiple ideas simultaneously. We identify two forms of such multiplicity: vertical multiplicity, where nested relational networks materialize coherent ideas that differ only in their degree of specificity; and horizontal multiplicity, where intersecting relational networks materialize divergent ideas of the same degree of specificity. We argue that failure to recognize this multiplicity accounts for a great deal of materiality’s reifying capacity, while its recognition can facilitate new ways of approaching the dereification challenge. Our second contribution is therefore a strategy for resisting reification: materializing multiplicity.
In this theoretical paper we investigate how domination has adapted to the new social settings of a flexible and pluralist economy. Building on French pragmatic sociology, we propose an understanding ...of organizational domination whereby workers are enabled and encouraged to overtly express critique, yet work is nevertheless effectively obtained from dominated actors. Domination is here mainly understood as a system through which workers are engaged in action despite critiquing that action. We propose the concept of elusive domination as a combination of three mechanisms that undermine critique’s capacity to influence organizational power arrangements. First, ideological plasticity allows elusive domination to disarm critique by depriving it of its argument. Next, a combination of fast-changing rules and sacrosanct conventions prevents critique from settling, and thus deprives it of its object. Finally, emotions displayed in the workplace are filtered. The encouragement of positive and constructive critique coupled with the repression of uncomfortable feelings deprives critique of its source of indignation. The consequences of such developments for current debates on organizational domination are discussed.
This paper seeks to better understand the way staff professionals bring professional practices inside their organization by examining how they enact a practical agency to promote or disrupt ...practices. From an inductive study of occupational safety and health managers in a multinational construction company, we develop a framework of how staff professionals build perceived legitimacy and exert unobtrusive influence tactics to manoeuvre around social constraints. We contend that our principal contribution to the literature on institutional work is to provide a situated account of the practical agency of staff professionals inside one organization. In doing so, we extend current knowledge of the embedded agency paradox. Finally, our analysis offers new insights into the literature on professions and institutions by highlighting the work of staff professionals in a real‐life context, which has received scant attention in the last three decades.
A large majority of French companies have implemented a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy over the last twenty years, but little attention has been paid to their territorial ...responsibility. The Pacte law of 2019 now provides a framework for companies to question their raison d’être. This could present an opportunity for companies to question their territorial raison d’être, specifically. The article emphasizes the importance of the territorial dimension in order to avoid the instrumentalization of the Pacte law. To give substance to the territorial raison d’être, we suggest four avenues of work : 1) to evaluate territorial social utility ; 2) to follow the geographical distribution of monetary flows ; 3) to apprehend the ecological footprint of the value chain ; 4) to take into account social interdependencies and inequalities.
This article contributes to on-going research on social business models by establishing a link with arguably one of the most salient global challenges we are confronted with today: economic ...exclusion. We conceive of economic exclusion broadly as a lack of access to salaried employment, finance, or essential goods and services. Addressing how and to what extent social business models can alleviate economic exclusion, we first review and synthesize various bodies of literature on grand challenges and social business models to unpack the constitutive factors of economic exclusion and the constraints social businesses face in their attempts to alleviate them. Based on these insights, and inspired by former works, we draw up a typology of 12 ideal-type social business models. In doing so, we illustrate how each model operates, based on the specific configuration of business model elements required to overcome the relevant barriers underpinning economic exclusion. The main contribution the paper makes is to advance a typology of ideal-type social business models covering the diverse constraints pertaining to economic exclusion. In concluding, we reflect on this contribution, its limitations and avenues for future research.
Abstract
Past research on collectivist-democratic organizations has attributed their distinctiveness to their socio-political goals and democratic decision-making and largely ignored their work ...processes. This ethnographic study examines how such organizations resist alienating forms of work even in the face of direct competition with for-profit companies. It focuses on Scopix, a French cooperative sheet-metal factory where the first author spent one year as a shop-floor worker. Cooperators there developed various practices to retain an emancipatory dimension to their work, regularly putting forward “craft ethics” as a counterweight to the sheet-metal industry’s drive to rationalize work processes. Drawing on the sociology of worth, the authors analyze how these practices emerged from the arrangements that workers made between the industrial world on the one side and the domestic and inspired worlds on the other. This study contributes to the literature into two main ways. First, the authors refine the sociology-of-worth framework by conceptualizing the emancipatory dimension of work as the result of ad hoc arrangements between different worlds. Second, the authors highlight the need for the literature on collectivist-democratic organizations to increase its focus on work, introducing the concept of work degeneration as a step in that direction.
La démocratie organisationnelle autrement Jaumier, Stéphane; Daudigeos, Thibault; Huault, Isabelle ...
Revue française de gestion,
01/2019, Letnik:
45, Številka:
278
Journal Article, Magazine Article
Recenzirano
Le présent article s’intéresse aux entreprises en tant que lieux possibles d’adoption de pratiques démocratiques radicales. Pour cela, les auteurs s’appuient sur la notion de « hiérarchie à ...domination inversée », qui caractérise des organisations dans lesquelles la structure hiérarchique est paradoxalement mise au service de l’égalité et de la démocratie. L’étude ethnographique d’une coopérative de salariés leur permet de décrire l’ethos égalitaire, les pratiques d’endiguement du pouvoir et les fonctions atypiques des manageurs propres à ce type d’organisations.
The current article concerns the possibility for companies to adopt radical democratic practices. To that purpose, the authors build on the ‘reverse dominance hierarchy’ concept, which applies to organizations in which a hierarchical structure paradoxically fosters equality and democracy. An ethnographic study of a worker co-operative is used to describe the egalitarian ethos, the mechanisms by which power is contained, and the atypical roles of managers that are characteristic of such organizations.
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