The article focuses on heterosexuality as a covert feature of organization studies as well as of organizational research. In fact, while organization studies have discussed the gendered and the gendering aspects of organi- zational practices and organizational theory, the implication of heterosex- uality has yet to receive intensive analysis in these fields. And while the mutual and reflexive constitution of the observer and the observed has been the topic of a considerable amount of research, the dimension of (het- erosexual) desire in this process of mutual constitution is still largely unex- plored. Referring to three different episodes that occurred while the author was doing organizational ethnography, the article suggests that a hetero- sexual model of desire is called into action both in organizational and research activities and that focusing on it can be an occasion to question not only the gender (and heterosexual) biases of organizational practices but also the way in which gender and sexuality are mobilized while doing research. In particular, on the basis of the concept of cathexis, the article shows how heterosexuality is learnt and enacted as a situated practice and through a variety of processes: performing power, negotiating and display- ing that one belongs to an organizational culture, obscuring the hetero- normativity of professional identities and neglecting the emotional engagement that characterizes research activities and that exposes the researcher to an otherwise vulnerable position.
Have You Got a Boyfriend or are You Single?Æ: On the Importance of Being æStraightÆ in Organizational Research / Bruni, Enrico. - In: GENDER, WORK AND ORGANISATION. - ISSN 0968-6673. - STAMPA. - 13:3(2006), pp. 299-316.
Have You Got a Boyfriend or are You Single?Æ: On the Importance of Being æStraightÆ in Organizational Research
Bruni, Enrico
2006-01-01
Abstract
The article focuses on heterosexuality as a covert feature of organization studies as well as of organizational research. In fact, while organization studies have discussed the gendered and the gendering aspects of organi- zational practices and organizational theory, the implication of heterosex- uality has yet to receive intensive analysis in these fields. And while the mutual and reflexive constitution of the observer and the observed has been the topic of a considerable amount of research, the dimension of (het- erosexual) desire in this process of mutual constitution is still largely unex- plored. Referring to three different episodes that occurred while the author was doing organizational ethnography, the article suggests that a hetero- sexual model of desire is called into action both in organizational and research activities and that focusing on it can be an occasion to question not only the gender (and heterosexual) biases of organizational practices but also the way in which gender and sexuality are mobilized while doing research. In particular, on the basis of the concept of cathexis, the article shows how heterosexuality is learnt and enacted as a situated practice and through a variety of processes: performing power, negotiating and display- ing that one belongs to an organizational culture, obscuring the hetero- normativity of professional identities and neglecting the emotional engagement that characterizes research activities and that exposes the researcher to an otherwise vulnerable position.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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