Embodied Writing in Management and Organisation Studies

This book brings together explorations of embodied writing and contributions to the Writing Differently movement in management and organisation studies – in terms of content, style, format, and development. The introduction to the special issue discusses editing differently and the political value and potential of embodied writing in surfacing hidden, silenced, and creative dimensions of research and experiences in management and organisation studies.

The chapters included in this edited volume tell a variety of stories across different contexts through poetry, movement and dance, embodied memory diaries, ethnodrama and theatre, as well as through queer listening, #tagging and relational reading practices underpinning the writing process. The editors invite us to think of, feel, and know differently not only what we do/think/write research on organising and in organisations but also how we engage in ways that do justice to the very processes of researching and writing, to the people we engage with, and to the embodied experiences discussed.

This book will appeal to scholars and practitioners across management and organisation studies seeking alternative approaches to knowledge production through embodied methodologies. It serves as an essential resource for those working at the intersection of critical management studies, arts-based research, and feminist/queer/decolonial approaches, as well as educators and journal editors interested in expanding the boundaries of academic expression.

Ilaria Boncori is Professor of Organization Behaviour and Human Resources Management at Essex Business School, UK. Her research explores social in/justice at intersections of identity, race, body, gender, and sexuality in organisational contexts. She employs qualitative methods such as autoethnography, photoethnography, interviews, and media analysis to investigate these themes through narrative and arts-based approaches.

Deborah N. Brewis is Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies at the University of Bath School of Management, UK. Her research spans critical diversity studies, creative methodologies, and digital labor. She examines inclusion, equality, gender and race in working life, digital identity work, and management of subjectivities.

Emmanouela Mandalaki is Associate Professor of Organizations at NEOMA Business School. In her research, Emmanouela engages with (post)qualitative and art-based methodologies which she combines with critical philosophical and sociological perspectives to explore alternative ways of engaging with questions of embodiment, ethics, gender, diversity, inclusion, social inequalities, and affect in organisations.

Noortje van Amsterdam is Associate Professor of Organization Studies at the Utrecht School of Governance, the Netherlands. She explores how power structures create inequalities across gender, dis/ability, body size, age, and race/ethnicity. Noortje employs creative methodologies including arts-based research, visual methods, and autoethnography to investigate bodily experiences and foster critical reflexivity.