From gendered organizations to compassionate borderspaces: Reading corporeal ethics with Bracha Ettinger

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new way of approaching the topic of ethics for management and organization theory. We build on recent developments within critical organization studies that focus on the question of what kind of ethics is possible in organizational contexts that are inevitably beset by difference. Addressing this 'ethics of difference', we propose a turn to feminist theory, in which the topic has long been debated but which has been underutilized in organization theory until very recently. Specifically, we draw on the work of Bracha Ettinger to re-think and extend existing understandings.Inspired by gender studies, psychoanalysis, philosophy and art, Ettinger's work has been celebrated for its revolutionary re-theorization of subjectivity. Drawing on a feminist ethics of the body inspired by psychoanalysis, she presents a concept of 'transsubjectivity'. In this, subjectivity is defined by connectedness, co-existence and compassion towards the other, and is grounded in what Ettinger terms the 'matrixial borderspace'. An ethics of organization derived from the concept of the matrixial suggests that a different kind of ethical relation with the Other is possible. In this paper, we demonstrate this through examining the issue of gender in the workplace. We conclude by outlining the implications of this perspective for rethinking ethics, embodiment and gender, and in particular for the development of a corporeal ethics for organization studies.

Thinking critically about affect in organization studies: Why it matters

“…This is seen in, for example, Braidotti's and Grosz's work discussed briefly above, and in the affective borderspaces proposed by Bracha Ettinger that organizational researchers have begun to draw on in order to re-theorize organizational ethics (Kenny and Fotaki, 2015;Pullen and Rhodes, 2015;Fotaki and Harding, forthcomingdiscussed below). Thanem and Wallenberg (2015) also contribute to this emerging trajectory of research by proposing an embodied ethics of organizational life through reading Spinoza's affective ethics.…”

“…The editors argue that this begs the rethinking of ethics in organizations from an embodied perspective. Kenny and Fotaki (2015) respond to this call by drawing their inspiration from the work of Bracha Ettinger a feminist artist, philosopher and psychoanalyst. Specifically, the authors translate her concept of the matrixial borderspace denoting a material, affective and symbolic structure, into organizational vocabulary, to replace the notion of the individualized separate subject with the idea of trans-or inter-subjectivity; this is then used to explore the development of a corporeal ethics of relationality for organization studies.…”

What Money Cannot Buy? Compassion in Healthcare: A Response to the Recent Commentaries

“…Leget 11 correctly argues that we need philosophies to help us deal better with the vulnerability of the human condition. However, my view is that an ethics of connectedness, coexistence and compassion towards the other, 12 which is rooted in the corporeality of care, is equally important. There is no reason why we cannot collectively create systems that build on professionals' good will, and that foster the ethos of altruism that attracted them to this work in the first instance.…”

Healthcare and Compassion: Towards an Awareness of Intersubjective Vulnerability Comment on "Why and How Is Compassion Necessary to Provide Good Quality Healthcare?"

“…The question is how to enable an environment in which such compassionate, 'transubjective' encounters can nonetheless take place, 25 grounded in the primary affect that our shared precarity as vulnerable subjects engenders. 21 Such an approach would be valuable in the workplaces that play such an important role in our society, 24 not least our healthcare organizations.…”

“…As noted by Willmott 23 and others, even apparently benign efforts to increase employee loyalty and commitment can be seen as manipulative and exploitative. Second, in considering the concept of prosocial behaviour, it is helpful to draw as Fotaki does here and in other work, 16,24 on feminist philosophy, not least the psychoanalytic idea that the aim of ridding the subject of all forms of aggression and exclusionary impulses towards the other, is an illusory goal. 20,25 Under such a view, subjects (including those who work in healthcare) possess the potential for compassion and new forms of 'beingwith' the other, just as they experience inherent impulses for domination and more negative effects.…”