Art, culture and paradox pedagogy in management learning: The case of Portuguese fado

Abstract

We propose a reawakening of interest in the role of artistic knowing for managerial education, presenting a pedagogy that is sensitive to cultural context and aimed at enabling the phronetic management of paradox. Inspired by fado, the iconic Portuguese popular music, especially the ways in which it embodies the stresses of society, we develop strategies for management learning based on engagement with art that fosters sensitivity to paradox. We contribute to management learning by inviting practitioners to be sensitive to the complexity of competing tensions in the cultures and language in and through which everyday lives are lived by bringing attention to the potential of artistic knowing for highlighting and navigating management paradoxes, to develop phronesis.

Learning to Live the Paradox in a Democratic Organization: A Deliberative Approach to Paradox Mindsets

“…Examining the dynamics of individual-collective paradox learning as it occurs within everyday organizational settings might extend our knowledge of how paradoxical learning could develop (Lewis & Dehler, 2000;Miron-Spektor et al, 2018;Sleesman, 2019). Practically, such an enhanced understanding could enable both existing practitioners and management educators to better facilitate the learning of paradox mindsets (Simpson, Berti, Cunha, & Clegg, 2021). We believe this requires a shift to a deliberative understanding of the development of paradox mindsets that better reflects the interaction between the collective and individual levels.…”

“…A deliberative model of paradox mindsets can also be used productively within management education in a variety of ways. At present, business schools tend to focus (as much of the earlier paradox literature does) on preparing individuals to face dilemmas and tensions within their working lives (Simpson et al, 2021;Vince et al, 2018). Educators in modern business schools regularly ask students to individually consider and reflect on how leaders might produce more innovative solutions to such tensions and also how they might work within teams to come up with ideas together to work through problems.…”

Dancing Our Way Beyond Work: Playlists and Zines as Teaching Tools to Imagine a World Without Work

“…Kelley's Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (2022) in which he traces the many ways in which Black radical social movements dreamed of alternative worlds and sang songs in that process. It was also inspired by the work done in feminist pedagogy on zines (for an overview of that literature see Creasap, 2014) and critical research and teaching about work and organizations through music (Rhodes, 2007;Simpson et al, 2021) The context is a class for 12 students in a brand new Master's program in Organization Studies at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. The Master's program is called Organizing Social Impact and is focused on bringing together grassroots organizations, NGO's, and other organizations working towards societal change with students in teaching and research.…”

Fado, urban popular song, and intangible heritage: perceptions of authenticity and emotions in TripAdvisor reviews

“…Fado emerges as a metaphor that captures the unique soul of Portuguese culture (Nielsen et al, 2009). For fadistas, genuine fado is an emotional experience shared between musicians, singers, and the audience, performed through music and body language in an intimate setting (Simpson et al, 2021). Fado lyrics are presented in the form of poems and usually address passion, loss, pain, lovelessness, nostalgia, and "saudade" (Shepherd, 2011).…”