Politics of place: The meaningfulness of resisting places

Abstract

The meaningfulness of the physical place within which resistance is nurtured and enacted has not been carefully considered in research on space and organizations. In this paper, we offer two stories of middle managers developing resistance to managerial policies and decisions.We show that the appropriation and reconstruction of specific places by middle managers helps them to build autonomous resisting work thanks to the meanings that resisters attribute to the place in which they undertake resistance. We contribute to the literature on space and organizations by showing that resistance is a social experience through which individuals shape physical places and exploit the geographical blurring of organizations to develop political efforts that can be consequential. We also suggest the central role played by middle managers in the subversion of these meaningful places of resistance.

Organizing Solidarity Initiatives: A Socio-spatial Conceptualization of Resistance

“…By focusing on the power dynamics of spatial organizing (Kronberger & Clegg, 2004), our study affirms that resistance, as a social practice, should be studied in relation to the places where things happen (Courpasson et al, 2017;Courpasson & Vallas, 2016;Juris, 2008;Polletta, 1999). Yet, resisting places are not only actual, existing settings (Courpasson et al, 2017) or 'transitory dwelling places' (Shortt, 2015), but also 'autonomous, borderless spaces' generated by various intensities and flows (Hardt & Negri, 2001).…”

“…The local organizing practices of Solidarity Initiatives (Courpasson et al, 2017;Shortt, 2015;Tuan, 1977 'scaling across' to take place: a process whereby small efforts grow large not through replication, but by inspiring each other to keep inventing and learning (Wheatley and Frieze, 2011); that is, a process through which people, ideas, knowledge and experiences travel across space and time, and mobilize others to resist and join a translocal experimentation for alternative ways of organizing work and life.…”

“…In other words, if the dominant order is legitimized through socio-spatial relations, and the current economic and political regimes are normalized through particular modes of spacing and ordering (Foucault, 1984(Foucault, , 1986 then it is also through socio-spatial reconfiguration that new modes of resistance could emerge. This paper contributes to recent spatial conceptualizations of resistance (Courpasson, Dany, & Delbridge, 2017;Courpasson & Vallas, 2016;Fernández, Marti, & Farchi, 2016) and examines it as a creative process, with a particular emphasis on local and translocal socio-spatial resistance practices 'through which political horizons are made, unmade and remade' (Vasudevan, 2015, p. 319). Responding to the call for a critical engagement with geographies of resistance (Courpasson et al, 2017), we explore resistance, not as a situated struggle against sovereign power and authority, but as a transformative force that is distributed across spaces and times.…”

“…This paper contributes to recent spatial conceptualizations of resistance (Courpasson, Dany, & Delbridge, 2017;Courpasson & Vallas, 2016;Fernández, Marti, & Farchi, 2016) and examines it as a creative process, with a particular emphasis on local and translocal socio-spatial resistance practices 'through which political horizons are made, unmade and remade' (Vasudevan, 2015, p. 319). Responding to the call for a critical engagement with geographies of resistance (Courpasson et al, 2017), we explore resistance, not as a situated struggle against sovereign power and authority, but as a transformative force that is distributed across spaces and times. This force enacts different capacities and forms of political agency, transcends 'the existing "limits" of social possibility' (Bloom, 2016: 3) and replaces existing socialities with different ways of being in the world.…”

“…Yet, resisting places are not only actual, existing settings (Courpasson et al, 2017) or 'transitory dwelling places' (Shortt, 2015), but also 'autonomous, borderless spaces' generated by various intensities and flows (Hardt & Negri, 2001). These flows enact resistances that 'run along dispersed, centripetal lines' (Hardy, 2016, p.104), and become something 'other' than a direct opposition or confrontation.…”