Control and Surveillance in Work Practice: Cultivating Paradox in ‘New’ Modes of Organizing

François-Xavier de Vaujany (), Aurélie Leclercq Vandelannoitte (), Iain Munro, Yesh Nama and Robin Holt
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François-Xavier de Vaujany: DRM - MLAB - Dauphine Recherches en Management - MLAB - DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Aurélie Leclercq Vandelannoitte: LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Iain Munro: University of Newcastle Business School - University of Newcastle Business School
Yesh Nama: RMIT University - Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University
Robin Holt: CBS - Copenhagen Business School [Copenhagen]
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Aurelie LECLERCQ-VANDELANNOITTE

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Abstract: The new world of work is being characterized by the emergence of what are, apparently, increasingly autonomous ways of working and living. Mobile work, coworking, flex office, platform-based entrepreneurship, virtual collaborations, Do It Yourself (DIT), remote work, digital nomads, among other trends, epitomize ways of organizing work practice that purportedly align productivity with freedom. But most ethnographical research already reveals many paradoxical experiences associated with these new practices and processes. Indeed, it appears that with autonomy comes surveillance and control, to a point where, as Foucault observed way back, subjectivity and subject become synonyms, and the current pandemic both strengthens and makes visible this situation. In this introduction to the special issue we make a foray into this situation, using four open and related themes developed in the five papers we selected: managerial control and technology; surveillance and platform capitalism; time and space; and new organizational forms and autonomy. Paradoxical movements are identified for each of them, before we conclude by reflecting on a grounding paradox which appears at the centre of this special issue and the themes it covers.

Date: 2021-05-14
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03268925v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Organization Studies, 2021, 42 (5), pp.675-695. ⟨10.1177/01708406211010988⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03268925

DOI: 10.1177/01708406211010988

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