In the era of an increasingly 'light' and 'liquid' modernity (Bauman, 2000) airports appear to be privileged and distinctive sites of organization, constitutive of what Castells calls a 'space of fl ows' that is helping to extend and integrate the so-called 'network age' of global economy and 'glocal' culture. This paper draws on original empirical research at Fulchester International Airport and studies the movement of various subjects and objects (including passengers, bags and aeroplanes) as they are assembled and disassembled by 'modes of ordering' to facilitate the fl ows of exchange and interaction that for Castells binds the physically disjointed positions of social actors in contemporary global organization. Our study explores the ways in which digital information and communications technology creates 'spectral' and uncanny phenomena that feeds back into the here-and-now of mundane, organizational reality.

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The article explores the practical accomplishment of organization at an international airport during the course of a number of ‘security alerts’ that disrupted routine ‘modes of ordering’ (Law, 1994). Airports, we suggest, invite us to re-think ‘organization’ as the partial, contingent and always-incomplete outcome of complex order(ing)s and disorder(ing)s played out across various spaces, agencies and materials. When ‘something happens’ we begin to see how spaces, agents and materials are subject to unexpected becomings: objects appear treacherous, spaces mutable, agencies ineffectual and informants unreliable. Following the work of Weick we might say that in such moments of uncertainty we are forced to reconsider our customary ways of thinking about objects, subjects and systems. We argue this thinking requires a relational understanding of organization so that we can better grasp how organizations are continuously being made and un-made through an on-going co-creation and dispersal of parts.

In the last 10 years, the majority of large companies have attempted to install Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, replacing functional systems with a standardised company-wide system. However, making an ERP system work, we contend, is more than an issue of technical expertise or social accommodation: it is an ongoing, dynamic interaction between the ERP system, different groups in an organisation and external groups, such as vendors, management consultants and shareholders. This paper builds this argument using the example of management accountants in the U.K. based on evidence from a survey and several case studies. Drawing on work by Scarbrough and Corbett, we apply and develop a model, the technology power loop, linking technology, the control of technology and expertise to explain issues of how ERP systems are made to work and how expert groups seek to influence this development. We show, using empirical evidence from a survey and several case studies, that the relationship of accountants and technologies such as ERPs has become increasingly intertwined, but accountants continue to use their position to reshape their professional expertise wherever possible. However, our evidence also shows that neglect in this area allows other groups to wrest control from management accountants and make ERPs work for themselves.

This paper describes Jordan's strategy to develop a strong ICT sector that will be internationally competitive. This strategy is analysed in two ways. First, by a comparison with two countries, Ireland and Singapore, with similarities as nation states and which are widely seen as successful in promoting and sustaining strong ICT sectors. Second, through an analysis of Jordan as a competition state where the role of the state is being redefined so as to implement policies in a globalising world. It is found that Jordan exhibits many of the characteristics of a competition state in terms of the promotion of mixtures of public and private partnerships and in developing relations with international agencies and multinational enterprises to create a strong ICT sector. Using these analyses, the prospects for Jordan's initiative are assessed and issues that will be of importance for its success are pointed out.