Fear and loathing in Harrogate: or an exploration of the mutual constitution of organisation and members
Publication date
2008Peer-Reviewed
YesOpen Access status
closedAccess
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
There have been no studies in organization research of conferences as part of the world of work. This paper describes a reflexive ethnographic study of one management conference. It finds that upon arrival at the places and spaces of the conference processes of self-making as conference attendee are set in train. Self-making subsequently takes place within processes of domination and subordination, achieved through fear, infantilization, disparagement and seduction. Reading this through the lens of Freudian-informed interpretations of the Hegelian master/slave dialectic, the paper argues that conferences are one of the means of control over academic, managerial and professional employees. Control is achieved through dialectical interactions between conference and employee.Version
No full-text in the repositoryCitation
Ford J.M. and Harding N.H.(2008). Fear and loathing in Harrogate: or an exploration of the mutual constitution of organisation and members. Organization. Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 233-250.Link to Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508407086582Type
Articleae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508407086582