Organizing Identity: Persons and Organizations after theory

204 Pages·2007·1.57 MB·English

by  Dr Paul du Gay

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organizing identity
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Culture, Representation and Identitiesis dedicated to a particular understanding
of ‘cultural studies’ as an inherently interdisciplinary project critically
concerned with the analysis of meaning. The series focuses attention on
the importance of the contemporary ‘cultural turn’ in forgiving a radical
re-think of the centrality of ‘the cultural’ and the articulation between the
material and the symbolic in social analysis. One aspect of this shift is
the expansion of ‘cultural’ to a much wider, more inclusive range of insti-
tutions and pratices, including those conventionally termed ‘economic’ and
‘political’.
Paul du Gay is at the faculty of Social Sciences at The Open University.
Stuart Hall is Emeritus Professor at The Open University and Visiting
Professor at Goldsmiths College, the University of London.
Books in the series:
Representing Black Britain
Black and Asian Images on Television
Sarita Malik
Cultural Economy
Cultural Analysis and Commercial Life
Edited by paul du Gay and Michael Pryke
Advertising Cultures
Gender, Commerce, Creativity
Sean Nixon
Advertising
A Cultural Economy
Liz McFall
Organizing Identity
Paul du Gay
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organizing identity:
persons and organizations ‘after theory’
paul du gay
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© Paul du Gay 2007
First published 2007
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes ofresearch or private
study,or criticism or review,as permitted under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act,1988,this publication may be reproduced,
stored or transmitted in any form,or by any means,only with the
prior permission in writing ofthe publishers,or in the case
ofreprographic reproduction,in accordance with the terms of
licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.Enquiries concerning
reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4129-0011-9
ISBN 978-1-4129-0012-6
Library ofCongress Control Number:2006927008
Typeset by C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India
Printed in Great Britain by Athenaeum Press,Gateshead
Printed on paper from sustainable resources
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In memory of REdG
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contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: ‘identity’ after ‘the moment of theory’ 1
Part 1 19
1 The Identity of Persons I 21
2 The Identity of Persons II 40
3 Which is the ‘Self’ in ‘Self-Interest’? 64
4 ‘Self-Service’: retail, shopping and personhood 85
Part 2 101
5 Re-Instating an Ethic of Bureaucratic Office:
office, ethos and persona in public management 103
6 The Tyranny of the Epochal: change, epochalism
and organizational casuistry 137
7 The Trouble with ‘Governance’: state,
bureaucracy and freedom 158
Bibliography 176
Index 189
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acknowledgements
The list of contributors to this book is too long to include in full; however
I would particularly like to thank the following organizations and individuals.
The John Lewis Partnership, and especially their Archivist, Judith
Faraday, for facilitating access to the partnership archives and for helping me
find my way around them. Thanks also to Sophie Taysom for providing
research assistance on the ‘Self-Service’ project.
The Sociology Program at the Research School of Social Sciences at the
Australian National University for providing a Fellowship that enabled me to
get this book started. Special thanks to Judy Wajcman for inviting and look-
ing after me, and to fellow-visitors Ann-Jorun Berg and Robert Van Krieken
for their intellectual companionship.
The Department of Organization and Industrial Sociology at the
Copenhagen Business School for allocating a Visiting Professorship that
allowed me the opportunity to try out some of the ideas contained in this
book in a doctoral seminar on Identity. Thanks in particular to the postgrad-
uates who participated in the seminar and to Ann Westenholz, Torben
Elgaard Jensen and Susse Georg for their encouragement and support.
The Centre for Critical Theory at the University of the West of
England for offering me a Visiting Chair from 2002 to 2005. Thanks to my
friend and colleague Anthony Elliott for his unstinting support, and to Ajit
Nayak and Anthony Beckett for their interest and enthusiasm.
The Economic and Social Research Council in the form of their Centre
for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CReSC) for enabling me to take a
generous period of study leave that enabled this book to be completed. I am
especially grateful to the Directors of the Centre, Mike Savage, Tony Bennett
and Karel Williams.
I am deeply grateful to friends and scholars who discussed ideas with
me, allowed me to plunder theirs and offered much needed guidance or sup-
port. I would especially like to thank: Frances Bonner, John Clarke, Franck
Cochoy, Gill Court, Liz McFall, Angela McRobbie, Danny Miller, Sean
Nixon, Mike Pryke, Alan Scott, Andy Sturdy, Charlie Turner and Margie
Wetherell.
I owe a particular debt to Richard Chapman, Stuart Hall, Ian Hunter,
David Saunders and Marilyn Strathern whose work has motivated this book
in ways they are probably not aware of and may even find a little odd.
A special debt is owed to Hall, Hunter and Saunders who have been