Actor-Network Theory and Organizing [Paperback]

Barbara Czarniawska (Editor), Tor Hernes (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2005 | ISBN-10: 8763001446 | ISBN-13: 978-8763001441 | Edition: 1

Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is rapidly making its mark as a practical, challenging and intriguing tool for studying organization. Its unique approach to connecting people, artifacts, institutions and organizations enables it to shed light on complexities that so far have escaped works in organization theory. In this book a number of European and American scholars apply ANT in the study of various aspects of organization, including technology, organizational change, routines, virtual organization, strategy, power, market mechanisms, consumer behaviour, public administration and knowledge management.

Taken together, the chapters offer new and intriguing ways of organizational theorizing. The book is suitable for researchers and higher level students, and it serves as an excellent primer for those wanting to learning about ANT through the lens of organization theory.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Actor-Network Theory (ANT) started with stories about strange worlds inhabited by scallops, microbes or Portuguese caravels sharing their lives with human beings. It is now a wide field of research explicitly open to new contributions, translations and problematizations. This innovative book from Scandinavia writes a new chapter in the ANT saga. Based on a series of field studies, it shows very convincingly how this now widely recognized approach might be helpful to revisit notions like power, organization and market." Michel Callon, CSI, Ecole des Mines de Paris

About the Author

Barbara Czarniawska holds a Science Research Council/Malmsten Foundation Chair in Management Studies at the Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Economics and Commercial Law, Göteborg University, Sweden.

Tor Hernes is Professor of Organization and Management at the Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, Norway.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Copenhagen Business School Press; 1 edition (June 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 8763001446
• ISBN-13: 978-8763001441
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,037,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Barbara Czarniawska was born 2 December 1948 in Bialystok, Poland, where her family moved from VilniusVilnius after the World War II. She is a Swedish citizen since 26 August 1988, and holds MA in Social and Industrial Psychology, Warsaw University, 1970; Ph.D.in Economic Sciences, Warsaw School of Economics, 1976; Doctor honoris causa at Stockholm School of Economics, 2005; Copenhagen Business School, 2006; Helsinki School of Economics, 2006.
She is a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Royal Engineering Academy, the Royal Society of Art and Sciences in Gothenburg, and Societas Scientiarum Finnica. In 2000, she received Lily and Sven Thuréus Technical-Economic Award for internationally renowned research in organization theory; and in 2003, Wihuri International Prize "in recognition of creative work that has specially furthered and developed the cultural and economic progress of mankind".
In her studies, Czarniawska applies a constructivist perspective on organizing, with the focus on action nets. Her methodological interests concern fieldwork techniques and the narrative approach in social science studies. She writes in Polish, English, Swedish and Italian. Her texts have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Danish, German, and Russian.
At present, she is a Professor of Management Studies at Gothenburg Research Institute, School of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg, Sweden; a Titular Professor at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management, Brussels; and a Visiting Professor at the University of Rome I "La Sapienza," Italy.