Experiencing a New Place as an Atmosphere: A Focus on Tours of Collaborative Spaces

Abstract

In this article, we ethnographically explore how tour guides convey different embodied experiences of space and place during tours of collaborative spaces. These tours draw on participants' embodied experience and emotions in order to reveal the invisible dimensions of everyday activities of collaborative spaces, in particular their different organizational atmospheres. By systematically coding 110 tours of such spaces, we identify four emotional registers -"initiation," "commodification," "selection," and "gamification," which are used by tour guides to produce a particular atmosphere. We feel that the concept of "atmosphere" is a powerful means of exploring the unbounded and fluid spatiality, the quasi-materiality, and the temporality of the work practices that individuals are likely to experience if they become members of these collaborative spaces. We conclude our analyses by considering the implications of this study for the management of collaborative spaces and new work practices more generally.

Observing Materiality in Organizations

“…Observers can feel the comfort of a seat, the brightness of a place, the fatigue of walking through wide spaces, and the emotions this provokes. For example, in their research on the experience of a new place as an atmosphere (de Vaujany et al, 2019), researchers built upon their own experience of 110 tours of collaborative spaces that were empty most of the time to identify the emotional registers used by tour guides to produce a particular atmosphere. Reh and Temel (2014) propose a four-step observation process, implemented in their study of classroom atmosphere, to observe materiality with the five senses.…”

“…Finally, to enrich the analysis of conceptions of artifacts and spaces, deconstruction (Derrida, 1976) can be used. Deconstruction, originally, aims at generating new interpretations of a text through in-depth analysis of its construction, including recurrent exclusions (for applications in management, see e.g., Kilduff, 1993;Martin, 1990).…”

The Aestheticization of Hybrid Space: The Atmosphere of the Locarno Film Festival

“…As a consequence of the central notion of this ‘new aesthetics’, organizational scholars have taken up the concept of ‘atmosphere’ (e.g. De Vaujany, Dandoy, Grandazzi, & Faure, 2019; Michels & Steyaert, 2017; van Marrewijk & Broos, 2012).…”

“…Similarly, we are asked to enquire into the dynamics and interactions between the different ‘aesthetic codes’ (Gagliardi, 1999) present in hybrid spaces, for example how they clash or enhance each other. While there have been initial organizational studies (see De Vaujany et al, 2019; Michels & Steyaert, 2017) that have analysed the production of atmospheres in between spaces, gestures, people and things, their analyses are restricted to very specific organizations (i.e. artistic performances, guided tours of collaborative spaces); they are not focused on hybrid space.…”

Becoming upbeat: Learning the affecto-rhythmic order of organizational practices

“…Specifically, I suggest that examining the affective quality of space is essential and timely because work is increasingly performed in settings that are designed to generate particular kinds of affective responses in their users, especially those that support the accomplishment of certain entrepreneurial goals. For example, startup incubators, accelerators, co-working spaces, hubs, and other collaborative workspaces are designed to "push" people together, make people be "creative," and generate an energetic "buzz" that attracts talent and fosters innovative potential (de Vaujany, Dandoy, Grandazzi, & Faure, 2019;Fabbri, 2016;Jakonen, Kivinen, Salovaara, & Hirkman, 2017). In this dissertation, I suggest that these spaces are manipulated to appeal to the senses of their (potential) users much more than traditional workspaces.…”