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Chapter 5 Futures: Necessity, Experiment and the School for Organizing

  • Martin Parker
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The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation
This chapter is in the book The Handbook of Organizing Economic, Ecological and Societal Transformation

Abstract

In this chapter I want to make an argument about what ‘the future’ might look like and how we might get there. It seems to me important to disconnect ideas about the future from the fetish of technology as both the cause and evidence of future making and instead, using Alain Badiou’s framing of ‘the event’, to understand transformation as a way of thinking about changes in social organization. However, to avoid the problems with singular versions of the future I propose a ‘school for organizing’ as a practice which insists on multiplicity - teaching and researching what Roberto Unger calls an experimental approach to organization in order to achieve what Erik Olin Wright’s terms ‘ruptural’ social change. It seems to me that there can be many futures, and human beings must learn to explore and practice their variety, developing a relentlessly optimistic yet conditional approach because only one future will never be enough.

Abstract

In this chapter I want to make an argument about what ‘the future’ might look like and how we might get there. It seems to me important to disconnect ideas about the future from the fetish of technology as both the cause and evidence of future making and instead, using Alain Badiou’s framing of ‘the event’, to understand transformation as a way of thinking about changes in social organization. However, to avoid the problems with singular versions of the future I propose a ‘school for organizing’ as a practice which insists on multiplicity - teaching and researching what Roberto Unger calls an experimental approach to organization in order to achieve what Erik Olin Wright’s terms ‘ruptural’ social change. It seems to me that there can be many futures, and human beings must learn to explore and practice their variety, developing a relentlessly optimistic yet conditional approach because only one future will never be enough.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. List of Contributors IX
  4. Part One: By Way of Introduction
  5. Chapter 1 Organizing Economic, Environmental and Societal Transformation: An Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 2 Transformation: For Whom, By Whom, Where, Why and When? 27
  7. Part Two: Opening Up Futures
  8. Chapter 3 Post-anthropocentric Transformations of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond the Nature-Culture Divide 49
  9. Chapter 4 ‘Organising Social Impact’ Master’s Programme as ‘Critical Praxis’ to Transform the University and Society 69
  10. Chapter 5 Futures: Necessity, Experiment and the School for Organizing 87
  11. Part Three: Techno-economic Transformations at Work
  12. Chapter 6 The Social Construction of Digital Technologies: The Politics behind Technology-centered Transformations 103
  13. Chapter 7 The Transformation of Work in the Digital Age: Coworking Spaces as Community-Based Models of Work Organization 125
  14. Chapter 8 Organizing Around Affect: Control and Potentiality in Contemporary Capitalism 145
  15. Part Four: Sustainable Environmental Transformation
  16. Chapter 9 Systemic Risks and Organizational Challenges in Transformative Processes: ‘Cybersecurity’ in the Food Field 165
  17. Chapter 10 Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth Transformation 189
  18. Chapter 11 Economic Organizations and the Transformation Towards Degrowth 209
  19. Part Five: Radical Democratic Futures
  20. Chapter 12 Organizing for Social Transformation from Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic Action 235
  21. Chapter 13 From Stakeholders to Communities of Care 257
  22. Chapter 14 The Possibilities of Radical Democratic Management 275
  23. Chapter 15 Searching for Transformative Potential: Comparing Conceptualizations of Open, Inclusive and Alternative Organizations 295
  24. Index 315
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110986945-005

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. List of Contributors IX
  4. Part One: By Way of Introduction
  5. Chapter 1 Organizing Economic, Environmental and Societal Transformation: An Introduction 1
  6. Chapter 2 Transformation: For Whom, By Whom, Where, Why and When? 27
  7. Part Two: Opening Up Futures
  8. Chapter 3 Post-anthropocentric Transformations of Consumption in the Anthropocene: Beyond the Nature-Culture Divide 49
  9. Chapter 4 ‘Organising Social Impact’ Master’s Programme as ‘Critical Praxis’ to Transform the University and Society 69
  10. Chapter 5 Futures: Necessity, Experiment and the School for Organizing 87
  11. Part Three: Techno-economic Transformations at Work
  12. Chapter 6 The Social Construction of Digital Technologies: The Politics behind Technology-centered Transformations 103
  13. Chapter 7 The Transformation of Work in the Digital Age: Coworking Spaces as Community-Based Models of Work Organization 125
  14. Chapter 8 Organizing Around Affect: Control and Potentiality in Contemporary Capitalism 145
  15. Part Four: Sustainable Environmental Transformation
  16. Chapter 9 Systemic Risks and Organizational Challenges in Transformative Processes: ‘Cybersecurity’ in the Food Field 165
  17. Chapter 10 Uniting the Means and Ends of Degrowth Transformation 189
  18. Chapter 11 Economic Organizations and the Transformation Towards Degrowth 209
  19. Part Five: Radical Democratic Futures
  20. Chapter 12 Organizing for Social Transformation from Below: Prefigurative Organizing and Civic Action 235
  21. Chapter 13 From Stakeholders to Communities of Care 257
  22. Chapter 14 The Possibilities of Radical Democratic Management 275
  23. Chapter 15 Searching for Transformative Potential: Comparing Conceptualizations of Open, Inclusive and Alternative Organizations 295
  24. Index 315
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