The Uncomfortable Lack of Space and Spatiality in Strategy Studies as Social Practice: a Research Agenda

Borges, Jacquelaine Florindo; Takahashi, Adriana Roseli Wünsch

doi:10.1590/1984-92302021v28n9705EN

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Article • Organ. Soc. 28 (97) • Apr-Jun 2021 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-92302021v28n9705EN copy

The Uncomfortable Lack of Space and Spatiality in Strategy Studies as Social Practice: a Research Agenda

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

In this theoretical essay, we analyze how strategy studies, seen as social practice, benefit from a dialogue with studies of Philosophy, Sociology and Geography about space and associated concepts such as spatiality, territory, region and place. These studies compose a diversified epistemic and theoretical framework. Human and Social Sciences have promoted two epistemic changes in the late 20^th century, namely: the return to practice and space. The practical turn in the organizational strategy field was not followed by spatial turn. The aims of the present study are to analyze the spatiality of strategy seen as practice and to suggest a research agenda to connect organizational strategy to topics that go beyond the business world. It has also expanded the frontiers of studies focused on investigating strategy as a complex of socially-situated strategizing practices implemented by a plurality of actors who create and transform space as multiplicity: physical / material, cultural / symbolic, political / economic, represented / narrated.

space; spatiality; strategy-as-practice; strategizing; territory

1 – Space, Spatiality
“Space results from men's actions in their own space, which is intermediated by objects, both natural and artificial” ( Santos, 1988Santos, M. (1988). Metamorfoses do espaço habitado . São Paulo, SP: Hucitec. , p. 25). Space is “produced” with material and ideological implications related to capitalist accumulation, as well as to the creation and destruction of new investment and to consumption spaces ( Harvey, 2005)Harvey, D. (2005). A produção capitalista do espaço . São Paulo, SP: Annablume. . Space: condition, medium and product; and spatiality is a socially produced space ( Soja, 1993)Soja, E. W. (1993). Geografias pós-modernas: a reafirmação do espaço na teoria social crítica . Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Zahar. . “1. Space is the product of interrelations. It is constituted by interactions, from the immensity of the global to the intimately tiny . . . 2. Space is the sphere of possibility of existence of multiplicity; it is the sphere where different trajectories coexist; it is the sphere of the likely existence of more than one voice. Without space, there is no multiplicity; without multiplicity, there is no space . . . 3. Finally, and precisely because space is the product of relationships-between, relationships that are necessarily embedded material practices that need to be made effective, it is always in a process of becoming, it is always being done” ( Massey & Keynes, 2004, pMassey, D., Keynes, M. (2004). Filosofia e política da espacialidade: algumas considerações. GEOgrafia , 6 (14), 7-23. doi:10.22409/GEOgraphia2004.612.a13477 , p. 8). Space, “as category of thought and practical reality, brings within itself the idea of reference for human beings, since it is its condition of existence, just as transformations in society bring, as consequence, spatial changes” ( Carlos, 2016, pCarlos, A. F. A. (2016). A condição espacial . São Paulo, SP: Contexto. , p. 17).
2 – Territory, Territoriality, Deterritorialization
“Territory means a portion of geographical space under the jurisdiction of certain peoples, i.e., it means distinction, separation and partition based on geopolitical and psychological behaviors” ( Saquet, 2015, pSaquet, M. A. (2015). Abordagens e concepções de território (4a ed.). São Paulo, SP: Outras Expressões. , p. 68). “Territoriality . . . reflects the multidimensionality of the ‘lived’ territory” (Rafestin, 1993, p. 158). “Territoriality for humans is a powerful geographic strategy to control people and things through [geographic] area control. . . Territoriality is a primary geographical expression of social power. It is the means by which space and society are interrelated” ( Sack, 2013, 63)Sack, R. D. (2013). O significado de territorialidade. In L. C. Dias, M. Ferrari (Orgs.), Territorialidades humanas e redes sociais (2a ed., pp. 63-89). Florianópolis, SC: Insular. , 63). Territoriality “refers to the set of practices and their material and symbolic expressions capable of guaranteeing the appropriation and permanence of a given territory by a given social agent, the State, as well as different social groups and companies” ( Corrêa, 1998, pCorrêa, I. L. (1998). Territorialidade e corporação: um exemplo. In M. Santos, M. A. A. de Souza, M. L. Silveira (Orgs.), Território, globalização e fragmentação (2a ed., pp. 251-256). São Paulo, SP: Hucitec. , pp. 251-252). Deterritorialization: the destruction and creation of new territories as part of the social process of change and of new territorialization forms; these movements show the intensity of changes, allow new space readings and new territorial articulation forms ( Haesbaert, 2016)Haesbaert, R. (2016). O mito da desterritorialização: do “fim dos territórios” à multiterritorialidade (10a ed.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Bertrand Brasil. .
3 –Region, Regionalization, Regionalism, Regionality
“In a regional study, one should try to detail its composition as social, political, economic and cultural organization by addressing concrete facts in order to understand how the area is inserted in the international economic order. It should be done by taking into account the preexisting and the new in order to capture the list of causes and consequences of the investigated phenomenon” ( Santos, 1988, pSantos, M. (1988). Metamorfoses do espaço habitado . São Paulo, SP: Hucitec. , p. 17). Region is a “concrete geographical entity”; regionalization concerns the process of differentiating space into articulated and relatively cohesive plots; regionality is a symbolic and lived/identity dimension, the property of being regional ( Haesbaert, 2010)Haesbaert, R. (2010). Região, regionalização e regionalidade. Antares: Letras e Humanidades , (3), 2-24. Recuperado de https://bit.ly/39gFC8e https://bit.ly/39gFC8e... . “. . . all regionalization must always be considered an act of power – the power to cut, to classify and, often, to name” ( Haesbaert, 2018, pHaesbaert, R. (2018). Regional-global: dilemas da região e da regionalização na geografia contemporânea (3a ed.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Bertrand Brasil. , p. 23). “. . . movements, identities, representations and the so-called regional policies are still alive in a more integrated and lived vision, rather than just in a simply functional and classificatory vision of region” ( Haesbaert, 2018, pHaesbaert, R. (2018). Regional-global: dilemas da região e da regionalização na geografia contemporânea (3a ed.). Rio de Janeiro, RJ: Bertrand Brasil. , p. 181).
4 – Place
“Elements grouped for enabling the spatial configuration of a place should undergo an in-depth study, from man to the institutions that will direct, together with firms, society materialization forms” ( Santos, 1988, pSantos, M. (1988). Metamorfoses do espaço habitado . São Paulo, SP: Hucitec. , p. 17). An object in which one can inhabit and develop feelings and emotions (Oliveira, 2014). Relations between socio-spatial practices and the place, “as a place where the bond to the other is established” ( Carlos, 2016, pCarlos, A. F. A. (2016). A condição espacial . São Paulo, SP: Contexto. , p. 38). “What gives a place its specificity is not a long and internalized history, but the fact that it is constructed from a particular constellation of social relations” ( Massey, 2000, pMassey, D. (2000). Um sentido global do lugar. In A. A. Arantes (Org.), O espaço da diferença (pp. 177-185). Campinas, SP: Papiros. , p. 184).

Approaches to strategy seen as social practice
Activity-Based View (ABV)
Strategy-as-Practice (SAP)
Practice-Based Studies (PBS)
Practice-Based View (PBV)

Physical/material space	Cultural/symbolic space	Political/economic space	Represented/narrated space
Locus of biological survival practices: humans, other animals and landscape.	Locus of language interactions and practices and cultural and aesthetic expressions.	Locus of power relations: space production, distribution and appropriation practices.	Locus of meaning, narrative, emotional and moral repertoires and criticality of practices.
Implications for studies about strategy seen as practice
Relationship between human and non-human, material and immaterial in strategy seen as practice.	Agency and structure in deterritorialization processes.	Spaces and the conflicting nature of strategy: resistance and domination.	Polysemic nature of strategy: multiple voices, interpretations, lived experiences, representations, imaginations, deliberations, responsibilities.
Strategies and practices in space deterioration, preservation and restoration processes.	Cultural multidimensionality of spaces in strategy seen as practice: public/ private; individual/ collective; deliberate/ emergent (chance), contingent/ accidental; local/global.	Ideological nature of strategy appropriation, space demarcation.	Affective and psychic dynamics of strategy seen as practice and of spaces.
Physical space historically modified by practices and strategies.	The symbolic factor and strategy seen as practice in perceived, conceived and lived spaces.	Strategies in space production and reproduction processes.	Strategy seen as practice, learning and memory: learning new practices and forgetting the old ones.
The transformation of spaces by practices and strategies driven by the massive use of new information technologies and others.	Space seen as cultural and symbolic capital of strategy seen as practice.	Established practices in use and new spatial practices in global trade.	Practices that make the place and the place of what is peculiar and meaningful to each organization.
Virtual spaces and national and global networks (“nodes” are the places)	Strategies focused on the construction and fractures of territorial identities and on place fabrication: construction (invention), cultural and symbolic practices of the territory.	Space appropriation practices: tension, contradiction, negotiation.	Strategies seen as exclusion/inclusion sources: attachment to the place or feeling out of place
Practices and strategies in non-places (standardized places).	Influence of cultural and symbolic expressions on strategies of sectarian spatial movements; of coexistence in large urban centers; of multiple modern “tribes” and cultural hybridization	Hierarchy/maintenance of space control.	Place fabrication strategies: psychosocial and moral expressions of place identity construction (invention) and territory demarcation (manipulative, narcissistic, immoral practices and fun, healthy, ethical practices).
Strategies and practices at borders created by cyberspace.	Culture and transfer of strategies and practices of places.	Spatial strategies and practices to deal with uncertainty, dependence (cooperation and warmongering).	Narrative and discursive practices of lived experiences.
Articulation of people, objects, performances and strategies		Strategies and practices in the center/periphery relationship, in the acquisition or loss of economic power of territories.	Strategy and affective memory in the construction and change of spaces.
Strategy seen as practice and production of physical territory paths.		Strategies for sharing territories: different ethnic groups and social groups, flows of migrants.
Multi-escalation of spaces: appropriation and physical demarcation of spaces.		Wealth and misery: spatialization strategies, positions and properties.
		Spatialization and territorialization of companies and labor relationships.
The role played by strategy seen as practice and spaces. . .
Promised, imagined, dreamed, left, lived, possible, appropriate, passing by, represented, perceived, demarcated, stolen/disputed, invented, resistance, dissidents, insurgents, forgotten, recovered, transformed, controlled, refuge, recovered, eternalized, hope, non-places.

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[1] Authorship

Jacquelaine Florindo Borges

PhD in Administration at University of São Paulo (USP), Post-doctorate in Administration at Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). Professor of the Post-Graduate Program in Administration at Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU). E-mail: jacborges@ufu.br

Adriana Roseli Wünsch Takahashi

PhD in Administration at University of São Paulo (USP), Post-doctorate in Administration at Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV). Professor of the Post-Graduate Program in Administration at Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). E-mail: adrianarwt@ufpr.br