Embodied, Relational Practices of Human and Non-Human in a Material, Social, and Cultural Nexus of Organizations

Wendelin  M. Küpers

doi:10.22029/oc.2016.1120

Wendelin M. Küpers Karlshochschule International University

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22029/oc.2016.1120

Keywords: embodiment, in-between, non-human, Merleau-Ponty, practice, Gelassenheit, organizing, organizations

Abstract

This article explores the significance of materiality and non- or other-human, especially the role of body and embodiment in relation to intra- and inter-practices in organizations and their culture from a phenomenological perspective and cross-disciplinary approach. Following a Merleau-Pontyian approach, the non-human is discussed in relation to cultural practices in organizational life-worlds. Based on a critique of physicalist empiricism and idealistic rationalism, impasses and limitations of naturalist and constructionist approaches towards culture are problematized. Showing the co-constitutive role of the in(ter)-between and inter-corporeality allows interpreting the corporeal nexus of material, social, and cultural phenomena of inter-practices within a continuum of the human and non-human, thus as an entangled ‘non-+-human’ web. Finally, the paper discusses some implications and perspectives on the ‘non-+-human’ in the study and practice of culture by particularly outlining an ethos of ‘engaged releasement’ (‘Gelassenheit’). This orientation will be presented as a letting be-come in relation to things and thinking for mediating a living sustainable ‘bodiment’ of human and more-than-human dimensions.

Author Biography

Wendelin M. Küpers, Karlshochschule International University

Wendelin Küpers is Professor of Leadership and Organization Studies at Karlshochschule International University in Karlsruhe, Germany. Integrating a phenomenological with a cross-disciplinary orientation, his research explores embodied, emotional, and creative dimensions of cultural practices in relation to more responsible forms of organizing and managing. Furthermore, he investigates artful and aesthetic dimensions of practical wisdom for organization and leadership theory and practice.