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The Politics of ‘Positive Deviance': Inquiring Total Institutions, Public Administration and Social Enterprises
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 June 2015
End Date
31 December 2016
Status
ongoing
Keywords
politics
positive deviance
play
rhythms
total institutions
governing
social enterprises
Description
Context: Deviance, broadly conceived as individual or collective acts of norm- and rule-breaking, forms an inherent part of all processes of organizing. Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in the political dimension of deviance as epitomized in processes that disturb, suspend or intervene in existing norms, rules and power relations. Despite the existence of a burgeoning literature on the politics of deviant phenomena such as resistance, the defining features that render these forms of deviance either positive or negative have not been systematically addressed. Objective: Aspiring to advance theorizing on the political dynamic of positive deviance in processes of organizing, this project focuses on how deviance precipitates political possibilities by creating the conditions for re-negotiating identities, practices of organizing and reality at large. Rationale and set-up: Rather than advancing a self-contained theory of the subject matter, three sub-projects are introduced which elaborate how the politics of positive deviance is played out in three specific contexts of organizing:
1. The first sub-project homes in on extreme forms of oppression as exercised in a particular form of total institution (Goffman, 1961), the Holocaust. Based on a thematic reading of Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, the concept of play (in the sense of ‘acting') is suggested as a way of understanding possibilities of positive deviance in situations where liberties are extremely limited. Drawing on performance theory to shed light on the dramaturgical dimension of survival, we discuss how the performative enactment of alternative (imagined) realities creates possibilities of discretion and "normality' outside of power's gaze. Further, we sketch out how play gives rise to an ethics of responsibility based on self-sacrifice.
2. The second sub-project takes issue with a misconception of deviance in a specific theory of public administration called Post-Foucauldian Governmentality studies. The guiding idea of this train of thought is that governmental power constantly fails to accomplish its designated aim as those being governed notoriously refuse to comply with its normative demands. This project puts this logic on its head by claiming that deviance is less a sign of governmental power's failure but the very nucleus of its success. Based on longitudinal qualitative research conducted in the English third sector, we show that breaches of the official mandate given to practitioners by government often results in effects which are in the best interest of society. Seen in this way, we suggest that governmental norms and deviance must be understood as co-constitutive, and that deviance needs to be seen as a positive phenomenon without which governmental power would be ineffective.
3. The third sub-project casts a new light on the complex ways in which social enterprises respectively reproduce or transcend broader economic structures. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's work on rhythms, a rhythmanalysis of three types of social enterprises - i.e. work integration social enterprises, neighborhood recovery initiatives and entrepreneurial squats - is conducted to shed light on the different temporalities, rhythms and speeds in which these organizations engage and which they actively produce. The basic argument being made is that some social enterprises more than others tend to reproduce the foundational demands of economic production by aligning their activities with rhythms, schedules and routines that are subservient to the logic of profit. The findings offer important insights as to the extent to which social enterprises can undo economically codified rhythms that are characteristic of everyday life under capitalism.
Contribution: The overarching contribution this project makes is conceptual in nature, and consists of offering new impulses to existing theorization on the politics of positive deviance. The insights from the three sub-projects will be submitted to top journals in their respective subject area: Organization Studies, Public Administration Research and Theory and Human Relations. We also consider sharing our findings with stakeholders outside of academia, and making our insights amenable to the classroom by translating them into teaching cases.
1. The first sub-project homes in on extreme forms of oppression as exercised in a particular form of total institution (Goffman, 1961), the Holocaust. Based on a thematic reading of Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful, the concept of play (in the sense of ‘acting') is suggested as a way of understanding possibilities of positive deviance in situations where liberties are extremely limited. Drawing on performance theory to shed light on the dramaturgical dimension of survival, we discuss how the performative enactment of alternative (imagined) realities creates possibilities of discretion and "normality' outside of power's gaze. Further, we sketch out how play gives rise to an ethics of responsibility based on self-sacrifice.
2. The second sub-project takes issue with a misconception of deviance in a specific theory of public administration called Post-Foucauldian Governmentality studies. The guiding idea of this train of thought is that governmental power constantly fails to accomplish its designated aim as those being governed notoriously refuse to comply with its normative demands. This project puts this logic on its head by claiming that deviance is less a sign of governmental power's failure but the very nucleus of its success. Based on longitudinal qualitative research conducted in the English third sector, we show that breaches of the official mandate given to practitioners by government often results in effects which are in the best interest of society. Seen in this way, we suggest that governmental norms and deviance must be understood as co-constitutive, and that deviance needs to be seen as a positive phenomenon without which governmental power would be ineffective.
3. The third sub-project casts a new light on the complex ways in which social enterprises respectively reproduce or transcend broader economic structures. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's work on rhythms, a rhythmanalysis of three types of social enterprises - i.e. work integration social enterprises, neighborhood recovery initiatives and entrepreneurial squats - is conducted to shed light on the different temporalities, rhythms and speeds in which these organizations engage and which they actively produce. The basic argument being made is that some social enterprises more than others tend to reproduce the foundational demands of economic production by aligning their activities with rhythms, schedules and routines that are subservient to the logic of profit. The findings offer important insights as to the extent to which social enterprises can undo economically codified rhythms that are characteristic of everyday life under capitalism.
Contribution: The overarching contribution this project makes is conceptual in nature, and consists of offering new impulses to existing theorization on the politics of positive deviance. The insights from the three sub-projects will be submitted to top journals in their respective subject area: Organization Studies, Public Administration Research and Theory and Human Relations. We also consider sharing our findings with stakeholders outside of academia, and making our insights amenable to the classroom by translating them into teaching cases.
Member contributor(s)
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
The politics of positive deviance
Method(s)
qualitative (ethnographic) research
film analysis and conceptual analysis
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Eprints ID
241222
3 results
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PublicationDeviance, Ignorance and the ‘Art of Governing': Revisiting Post-Foucauldian Governmentality Studies( 2015-09-06)Teasdale, SimonPost-Foucauldian governmentality studies (PFGS) assert that Foucault-inspired work on governmentality privileges the discursive level of governmental techniques - such as social policies - whilst ignoring the empirical reality of governing. To retain its explanatory value, so the argument goes, governmentality studies need to be complemented with empirical studies of the actual practices of those being governed. This article challenges PFGS on the basis of how it tends to interpret people's deviance from the stated objectives of discursive governmentality as an indication that governing forms a perpetually failing operation. Turning this logic on its head, we purport that although governmental techniques often fail to produce their designated aims, this apparent failure eventually forms a constitutive, if disavowed, element of governing. To substantiate this claim, we offer a rereading of research dealing with how social enterprise policies are dealt with by practitioners in the UK third sector. Pinpointing how practitioners deviated from the normative demands of existing social enterprise policies, it gets discussed that they inadvertently acted in accordance with the broader governmental objective of using the third sector to ameliorate social problems. Based on these insights, it gets suggested that the intertwined relationship between deviance and government's ignorance thereof forms the linchpin of the ‘art of governing', since only if individuals are unofficially allowed to deviate from what social policies explicitly demand does it become possible to harness the creative potential immanent to those being governed.Type: conference paper
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PublicationAlternative enterprises, rhythms and (post)capitalism: Mapping spatio-temporal practices of reproduction, escape and intervention( 2016-07-07)
;Teasdale, SimonSeanor, PamThe growing discomfort about contemporary capitalism has rekindled interest in alternative forms of entrepreneurship. Broadly conceived as pre-eminent social change agents, alternative enterprises – variously referred to as public, social, sustainable, eco- or transformative enterprises – are increasingly seen as holding the promise of a type of commercial endeavor capable of transcending the blatant excesses of capitalism. This debate, albeit important, lacks theoretical depth and critical grounding. To address this situation, we draw on Henri Lefebvre’s work on capitalism, rhythms and everyday life to develop a conceptual vocabulary attentive to the controversial and shifting relationship between alternative enterprises and capitalism. Specifically, based on Lefebvre’s tripartite framework of rhythms (isorhythmia, eurhythmia and arrhythmia), we offer a conceptual reading that aspires to map how three alternative enterprises (work integration social enterprises, urban recovery enterprises and entrepreneurial squats) variously reproduce, escape or intervene in the regular unfolding of the rhythms of capitalism. Pinpointing that the relationship between alternative enterprises and capitalism is more controversial than both celebratory and alarmist studies would suggest, the main contribution this article makes is to raise awareness that alternative enterprises intermingle reactionary and disruptive tendencies in often-unexpected ways. We conclude by calling for prospective research using rhythmanalysis as a corporeal mode of analysis that sets out to sense moments of reproduction and breakthrough which alternative enterprises’ enactment of different rhythms entail.Type: conference paper -
PublicationOvercoming constraints of collective imagination: An inquiry into activist entrepreneuring, disruptive truth-telling and the creation of ‘possible worlds’This article introduces ‘activist entrepreneuring’ to suggest a fresh understanding of en- trepreneuring which foregrounds how constraints of imagination are removed through critical speech. Specifically, we link Michel Foucault's work on parrhesia, or courageous speech, and various literatures on (utopian) imagination to discuss ‘disruptive truth-telling’ as the generative mechanism of activist entrepreneuring whose transformative force resides in breaking free from existing limitations of collective imagination, or what we refer to as the ‘orthodox social ima- ginary’. We use the activist group Yes Men to develop a process model which throws into sharper relief how disruptive truth-telling is employed, on the one hand, to expose and problematize the boundaries of collective imagination, and, on the other, to create ‘possible worlds’ that prefigure ways of doing business that are consistent with broader societal interest. The three interrelated objectives of this article are: first, to make creative use of the humanities to emphasize how disruptive truth-telling actualizes possibilities for imagining future realities that seem impossible from the standpoint of dominant imagination. Second, to make the case for seeing changes of collective imagination as a genuine entrepreneurial accomplishment. And third, to identify boundary conditions that help us strengthen the explanatory power of our theorizing on dis- ruptive truth-telling.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of business venturingVolume: 33Issue: 1
Scopus© Citations 63