This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Linstead, S. Articles by Thanem, T. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Multiplicity, Virtuality and Organization: The Contribution of Gilles Deleuze

University of York, UK, sl519{at}york.ac.uk

Torkild Thanem

Växjö University, Sweden, torkild.thanem{at}fek.su.se

Formal organization is often seen as opposed or resistant to change, in theory as well as in practice. Drawing primarily on the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze we argue that the reverse is true — that organization is itself a dynamic quality and that change and organization are imbricated in each other. We expand several key concepts of this philosophy in relation to organization (the multiplicity of order and the multiplicity of organization, strata and meshworks, virtuality and multitude) all of which draw attention to the unstable but ever-present forces that subvert and disrupt, escape, exceed and change organization. This enables an understanding of organization as creatively autosubversive — not fixed, but in motion, never resting and constantly trembling.

Key Words: Deleuze • change • order • virtual

References

• Ansell Pearson, Keith 1999 Germinal life: The difference and repetition of Deleuze. London: Routledge.
• Bergson, Henri 1911 Creative evolution. New York: Holt.
• Bergson, Henri 1999 `A letter from Bergson to John Dewey' in The new Bergson. J. Mullarkey (ed.), 84—87. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
• Blaug, Ricardo 1999 `The tyranny of the visible: Problems in the evaluation of anti-institutional radicalism'. Organization 6/1: 33—56.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Boundas, Constantin 1996 `Deleuze-Bergson: An ontology of the virtual' in Deleuze: A critical reader. P. Patton (ed.), 81—106. London: Blackwell.
• Brewis, Joanna, and Stephen Linstead 2000 Sex, work and sex work. London: Routledge.
• Brigham, Martin 2001 `Life enhancement now, now, now'. ephemera 1/4: 374—394.
• Buchanan, Ian 2000 Deleuzism: A metacommentary. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
• Burrell, Gibson 1997 Pandemonium: Towards a retro-organization theory. London: Sage.
• Burrell, Gibson 1998 `Linearity, control and death' in Discourse and organization. D. Grant, T. Keenoy and C. Oswick (eds), 134—151. London: Sage.
• Burrell, Gibson, and Gareth Morgan 1979 Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis: Elements of the sociology of corporate life. London: Heinemann.
• Chia, Robert 1998a In the realm of organization: Essays for Robert Cooper. London: Routledge.
• Chia, Robert 1998b Organized worlds: Explorations in technology and organization with Robert Cooper. London: Routledge.
• Chia, Robert 1999 `A "rhizomic" model of organizational change and transformation: Perspective from a metaphysics of change'. British Journal of Management 10/3: 209—227.[CrossRef]
• Colebrook, Claire 2002 Gilles Deleuze. London: Routledge.
• Cooper, Robert 1986 `Organization/disorganization'. Social Science Information 25/2: 299—335.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
• Cooper, Robert 1990 `Organization/disorganization' in The theory and philosophy of organizations. J. Hassard and D. Pym (eds). London: Routledge.
• Cooper, Robert 2001 `Un-timely meditations: Questing thought' (interview with S. Böhm and C. Jones). ephemera 1/4: 321—347.
• Cooper, Robert, and Gibson Burrell 1988 `Modernism, post modernism and organizational analysis: An introduction'. Organization Studies 9/1: 91—112.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Cummings, Stephen, and Torkild Thanem 2002 `The ghost in the organism'. Organization Studies 23/5: 817—839.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• De Landa, Manuel 1999 `Immanence and transcendence in the genesis of form' in A Deleuzian century. I. Buchanan (ed.), 120—134. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
• De Landa, Manuel 2000 A thousand years of nonlinear history. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• De Landa, Manuel 2002 Intensive science and virtual philosophy. London: Continuum Press.
• Deleuze, Gilles 1988 Bergsonism. New York: Zone.
• Deleuze, Gilles 1994 Difference and repetition. London: Athlone.
• Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari 1983 On the line. New York: Semiotext(e).
• Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari 1984 Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and schizophrenia, volume 1. London: Athlone.
• Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari 1988 A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia, volume 2. London: Athlone.
• Goodchild, Philip 1996 Deleuze and Guattari: An introduction to the politics of desire. London: Sage.
• Grosz, Elizabeth 2000 `Deleuze's Bergson: Duration, the virtual and a politics of the future' in Deleuze and feminist theory. I. Buchanan and C. Colebrook (eds), 214—234. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.
• Guattari, Félix 1984 Molecular revolution: Psychiatry and politics. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
• Hardt, Michael 1993 Gilles Deleuze: An apprenticeship in philosophy. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
• Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri 2000 Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Hardt, Michael, and Antonio Negri 2004 Multitude: War and democracy in the age of Empire. New York: Penguin.
• Jackson, Norman, and Pippa Carter 2004 `Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari' in Organization theory and postmodern thought. S. Linstead (ed.), 105—126. London: Sage.
• Land, Chris 2001 `Exploring the (expanded) realm of organization: Celebrations of a Cooperian revolution'. ephemera 1/4: 404—422.
• Linstead, Stephen 2000 `Dangerous fluids: The organization without organs' in Body and organization. J. Hassard, R. Holliday and H. Willmott (eds), 31—51. London: Sage.
• Linstead, Stephen 2002 `Organization as reply: Henri Bergson and casual organization theory'. Organization 9/1: 95—111.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Linstead, Stephen, and John Mullarkey 2003 `Time, creativity and culture: Introducing Bergson'. Culture and Organization 9/1: 3—13.[CrossRef]
• Linstead, Stephen, and Alison Pullen 2006 `Gender as multiplicity: Desire, displacement, difference and dispersion'. Human Relations 59/9: 1287—1310.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• Massumi, Brian 1992 A user's guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Maturana, Humberto, and Francisco Varela 1992 The tree of knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Boston, MA: Shambala.
• Munro, Rolland 2001 `Unmanaging/disorganization'. ephemera 1/4: 395—403.
• Patton, Paul 1994 `Translator's preface' in Difference and repetition. G. Deleuze, xi-xvii. London: Athlone.
• Rugman, Alan 2000 The end of globalization. London: Random House.
• Sørensen, Bent Meier 2001 `Assemblage notes, or, a comment on the factory of things '. ephemera 1/4: 367—373.
• Spoelstra, Sverre 2005 `Robert Cooper: Beyond organization'. Sociological Review 53/1: 106—119.[CrossRef]
• Thanem, Torkild 2001 `Processing the body: A comment on Cooper'. ephemera 1/4: 348—366.
• Thanem, Torkild 2004 `The body without organs: Nonorganizational desire in organizational life'. Culture and Organization 10/3: 203—217.[CrossRef]
• Tsoukas, Haridimos 1998 `Introduction: Chaos, complexity and organization theory '. Organization 5/3: 291—313.[Abstract]
• Tsoukas, Haridimos 2003 `New times, fresh challenges: Reflections on the past and the future of organization theory' in The Oxford handbook of organization theory: Meta-theoretical perspectives. H. Tsoukas and C. Knudsen (eds), 607—622. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Tsoukas, Haridimos, and Robert Chia 2003 `On organizational becoming: Rethinking organizational change'. Organization Science 13/5: 567—582.[CrossRef][Web of Science]
• Williams, James 2000 `Deleuze's ontology and creativity: Becoming in architecture'. Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy 9: 200—219.
• Williams, James 2003 Gilles Deleuze's Difference and Repetition: A critical introduction and guide. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.

This version was published on October 1, 2007

Organization Studies, Vol. 28, No. 10, 1483-1501 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840607075675


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This Article Abstract Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Linstead, S. Articles by Thanem, T. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?