The State of Things
ephemera: theory & politics in organization
Volume 10, number 2 (may 2010)
http://www.ephemeraweb.org
Edited by Steven D. Brown, Simon Lilley, Ming Lim and Stevphen Shukaitis
Today we live in a vastly transformed state of things: the artifice of
artefacts is evident all around us. A parliament of communication
technologies, from RFIDS to Bluetooth devices, constantly exchange
information and network all around and through us. Wireless networks
of communication, control, and cooperation proliferate in mysterious
ways, all speaking an infra-language of organization, inscribing new
techniques of governance. But these networks have become all the more
indiscernible by the open secret of their appearance.
Developments in Actor Network Theory (ANT) and autonomist
technoscience studies have made a turn towards the economic. What does
this bode for the field of organization studies? Will these two
movements join in an encompassing view of posthuman economic
institutions? Will ANT provide the definitive answer to the
interrelation of economics, politics and objects? These two yet
separated strands of economy and politics might provide a good
opportunity to revisit the problematics of objects and their politics,
combining them with more traditional approaches.
This issue of ephemera: theory & politics in organization considers
potential links between ANT and autonomist thought, linking them
together through a politics of technology and artefacts.
Articles
Johan Söderberg and Adam Netzén
When all that is theory melts into (hot) air: Contrasts and parallels
between actor network theory, autonomist Marxism, and open Marxism
Anna Feigenbaum
Concrete needs no metaphor:
Globalized fences as sites of political struggle
Dimitris Papadopoulos
Insurgent posthumanism
Norah Campbell and Mike Saren
The primitive, technology and horror: A posthuman biology
Elizabeth R. Johnson
Reinventing biological life, reinventing ?the human'
Reviews
Martin Parker
Pirates and the uses of history
Michael Rowlinson
Organizational memory: Narrative control and resistance