‘Nomadic’ organization and the experience of journeying: Through liminal spaces and organizing places

Abstract

This paper explores the author's experience of ‘nomadic’ organization [Deleuze, G., and F. Guattari. 1988. A Thousand Plateaus. London: Continuum] through the findings of an ethnographic study of an annual folk-culture community festival in a rural region of Sweden. The study concerned the practices of one small village community organizing group, of which the author was a member, in contributing to the festival. Using autoethnographic methods, the author brings together phenomenological theories of embodied knowledge [Merleau-Ponty, M. 1962. The Phenomenology of Perception. Abingon: Routledge; Küpers, W. 2011. “Dancing on the Līmen – Embodied and Creative Inter-Places as Thresholds of Be(com)ing: Phenomenological Perspectives on Liminality and Transitional Spaces in Organisation and Leadership.” Tamara – Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry Special Issue on Liminality 9 (3–4): 45–59.] and process theories or organizing [Chia, R. 1999. “A Rhizomic Model of Organizational Change and Transformation: Perspective from a Metaphysics of Change.” British Journal of Management 10 (2): 209–227; Tsoukas, H., and R. Chia. 2002. “On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change.” Organization Science 13 (5): 567–582] to examine his experiences of nomadic ‘journeying’. This highlights his movement in and through liminal spaces, both physical and metaphorical, as part of the research project, and his engagement with fellow participants in the co-construction of a place as part of the festival site organization. The impacts of these experiences on the author and their implications for the spatial relations of organizing are examined using fragments of reflexion, incorporating photographic and poetic elements.

Keywords:

• nomadism
• space/place
• liminality
• autoethnography
• embodiment
• aesthetics

Notes

1 CETL is the acronym for Centre of Excellence in Teaching & Learning. These were UK government funded projects to encourage the dissemination of good teaching practice amongst Universities with common areas of subject interest.