Year
2014
Abstract
Recent research streams are concerned with the performativity of discourses, i.e. how discourses perform practical organizing effects. This chapter focuses on activity itself as a discourse in acts. Acts are not only operations which transform the world, but also signs which point to socially built meanings, with a potential for others’ recognition, memory, communication and critical reflexivity. Collective activity is thus a discursive process which combines (i) habits, i.e. stabilized and socially shared action meanings, constituting the specific language of action; (ii) situated inquiries to adapt habits when they are disrupted; and (iii) a narrative thread, which connects habits and shapes a story. This view is illustrated by the example of the purchasing activity in a large electricity utility.
LORINO, P. (2014). From Speech Acts to Act Speeches : Collective Activity, a Discursive Process Speaking the Language of Habits. Dans: Language and Communication at Work: Discourse, Narrativity, and Organizing. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, pp. 95-124.