Only Penguins: A Polemic on Organization Theory from the Edge of the World

Abstract

The paper is a reflection on some of the conditions associated with being an Australian Management scholar in the Organization Studies field.

Public participation in regional health policy: a theoretical framework

“…Our research findings are consistent with Clegg's conceptualization of power being fluid and circular, and ultimately about influence [56]. Power is the ability to decide what is important, what is not important, what is a benefit or a loss, and what the goals of a public participation initiative should be.…”

Prologue: Stability and change

“…Another consequence of dominance is the choices that those who fi nd themselves on the fringes of the management knowledge industry (such as in the South Western Pacifi c) have over their relations with the epistemological metropolis. In recent times some 'fringe dwelling' management and organization studies researchers have begun to unpack these relations (Augier, March, & Sullivan, 2005;Clegg, Linstead, & Sewell, 2000;Leung, 2007;Prichard, Sayers, & Bathurst, 2007;Tsui, 2009). Prichard et al (2007) argue that there are at least three ways to constitute such relations.…”

“Nomadic Theorizing with a Power Compass”

“…2. The use of Virginia Woolf's phrase ("a room of our own"), which serves in many ways as a manifesto for the contemporary women's movement, is interesting in the context of Clegg, Linstead, and Sewell's (2000) essay. Are they equating the marginalization of Australian organization studies scholarship with the marginalization of women generally?…”

“…This sense of interstitiality in Clegg's work (and in his academic and cultural identity) comes across vividly in a recent-and particularly colorful-essay that takes as its polemic the ongoing marginalization of Australian organization studies by mainstream (i.e., European and U.S.) researchers. Rather pithily titled "Only Penguins," the essay situates Australian organization studies scholarship as existing "at the edge of the world" both geographically and academically (Clegg et al, 2000). In this essay, Clegg and his coauthors express their annoyance at the various ways in which Australian management scholarship-particularly that informed by critical theory-is heavily marginalized in the disciplinary matrix that constitutes management and organization scholarship.…”