The emergence of heterotopias in organization studies
Abstract
Ever since Michel Foucault shared a number of intuitions on ‘other spaces’ at a conference in 1967, a growing number of studies in social sciences have been focusing on what he then called heterotopias. Over the past 10 years, organization scholars have started to use the concept in their analysis, from leadership and marketing to queer practices and critical management studies (CMS). This article presents the origin and diffusion of the concept of heterotopia in management, using social movements as an illustration of its heuristic potential. We conclude by presenting two promising future avenues of research in our field: heterotopic entrepreneurship and organizational heterotopology.