| Summary: | This thesis aims to extend current understandings of the production of organisational space, with particular attention paid to its embodied characteristics. Empirically, this thesis explores the everyday lived experience and understanding of organisational space of employees and volunteers at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in England. Current empirical studies exploring the phenomenon of organisational space do so primarily from the perspective of space and the body, separating the body from space and viewing the body as being in space as opposed to of space. This perspective provides only a limited view of the lived experience of organisational space, for it does not consider that space and the body are intertwined, with the body shaping space and space shaping the body. To address this research gap, the thesis draws on the work of Lefebvre's (1974/1991; 1992/2004) theorisation of space. Data is collected through the methods of shadowing, photo-elicitation and hermeneutic conversations. Underpinning all of the stages of the data collection and interpretation is a Gadamerian approach to hermeneutics, which requires a joint interpretation of the data between myself and the research participants. The three main findings of the thesis extend existing conceptualisations of the lived experience of organisational space. The findings show that first, artefacts play a role in contesting the conceived spaces (Lefebvre, 1974/1991) of the organisation, producing spaces to dwell. A second key finding is the role that gestures play in understanding the lived experience while the third key finding highlights the role of the imaginary, in particular memory, death and nostalgia to spatial understandings. The latter are especially considered hitherto underexplored areas of the lived experience of organisational space. The final chapter of the thesis presents the overall conclusions, establishing how the conceptual contributions provide alternative ways of exploring and understanding the lived dimension of organisational space.
|
|---|
