Jens Rennstam
Senior lecturer, Director of third cycle studies, Department of Business Administration
How knowledge moves across social fields : A conceptual illustration of the antenarrative field of economic degrowth thinking
Author
Editor
- Jan Engberg
- Antoinette Fage-Butler
- Peter Kastberg
Summary, in English
This conceptual chapter investigates how knowledge moves across different “social fields” (Bourdieu, 2005b). We propose a certain social Gestalt new knowledge discussion creates the dialogically constructed antenarrative field. An antenarrative field is a social space for knowledge exchange where agents speculate on future scenarios’ potential for realization, and our notion of the antenarrative field helps understanding how knowledge gains recognition en route from one field to the other.
We illustrate our idea of the antenarrative field by observing the persuasion efforts by the Scandinavian NGO PRODegrowth. This NGO, a lowly positioned player in the political field, promotes economic degrowth to business agents, representing the “economic field” (Bourdieu, 2005b) where growth is imperative.
The encounter of executives and activists constructs the antenarrative field as a new social space. We combine Boje’s thinking tool of antenarrative (Boje, 2008), a story that might turn recognized in the future, and Bourdieusian field theory. The antenarrative field emerges by means of discussing the realistic reachability of degrowth and is thus being constructed as a potential diffusion hub for further organizations and fields not yet involved in the discussion.
Reachability talk hinges on how well agents can promote their knowledge and is the condition for knowledge travel between different agents and fields. Reachability talk is a means for agents to convey their knowledge to other groups, especially when holding an inferior position in terms of social power. The assumption that reachability might be a main criterion for the successful travel of storied knowledge has societal implications: not only is this criterion hinged on the support of the powerful (reachability is framed according to economic parameters), it might also hinder knowledge travel not conforming to possible business applications.
We illustrate our idea of the antenarrative field by observing the persuasion efforts by the Scandinavian NGO PRODegrowth. This NGO, a lowly positioned player in the political field, promotes economic degrowth to business agents, representing the “economic field” (Bourdieu, 2005b) where growth is imperative.
The encounter of executives and activists constructs the antenarrative field as a new social space. We combine Boje’s thinking tool of antenarrative (Boje, 2008), a story that might turn recognized in the future, and Bourdieusian field theory. The antenarrative field emerges by means of discussing the realistic reachability of degrowth and is thus being constructed as a potential diffusion hub for further organizations and fields not yet involved in the discussion.
Reachability talk hinges on how well agents can promote their knowledge and is the condition for knowledge travel between different agents and fields. Reachability talk is a means for agents to convey their knowledge to other groups, especially when holding an inferior position in terms of social power. The assumption that reachability might be a main criterion for the successful travel of storied knowledge has societal implications: not only is this criterion hinged on the support of the powerful (reachability is framed according to economic parameters), it might also hinder knowledge travel not conforming to possible business applications.
Department/s
- Department of Business Administration
- Organizational Studies
Publishing year
2023
Language
English
Pages
215-231
Publication/Series
Perspectives on Knowledge Communication : Concepts and Settings
Links
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Routledge
Topic
- Communication Studies
Keywords
- knowledge
- degrowth
- antenarrative
- social field
- Bourdieu
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 9781003285120
- ISBN: 9781003285120