Organization: The Relevance and the Limitations of Elias

In this introductory paper, I use a quotation from Elias's (1992) essay on time in order to introduce some key Eliasian concepts. I then explore the relation between power, interdependency and subjectivity through reference to Elias's oft-cited studies of court society as well as his less known analyses of time. Drawing on these referents, I discuss the relation of Elias to current organization theory focusing on Foucauldian work, Marx and labour process theory and, especially, actor-network theory. Eliasian argument has a number of points of contact with current fields of organizational analysis such as organizational strategy, violence in organizations, emotion in organizations, knowledge and discourse, globalization, organizations and the natural environment, etc. The paper briefly reviews such examples before considering certain limitations in Elias's conceptualization of interdependency and subjectivity.

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