Viewing the Language of Space: Organizational Spaces, Power, and Resistance in Popular Films

Abstract

Working within the tradition that sees space as narrative, in this paper we argue that the way space is constructed in popular films frames certain meanings about corporations that reflect the way that power relations are produced and reproduced in organizational contexts. We see power in Foucaultian terms and analyze the relationship of space and power in regard to three interrelated dimensions: the power enacted by the individuals in space, the symbolic power enacted by organizations through the use of space, and the power that space carries in and of itself so that space structures (or restructures) relationships. At the same time, we discuss how resistance is enabled in organizations both despite and due to space. Although physical space is often seen as a source of organizational power, both physically and symbolically, its relationship to resistance is much less well understood. We focus then on how the constitution of a “resistant subject” becomes central to the narrative about organizational space and how the subject’s acts highlight the notion that power and resistance are not analytical opposites but rather semiological co-constructions, accessed through the physical and mental space provided by film. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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