Becoming an Alternative Cultural and Creative Third Place Through Tensions between Space and Organizing

Natalia Bobadilla; Caroline Cintas; Olivier  Desplebin

doi:10.37725/mgmt.2024.5614

Natalia Bobadilla LabEx ICCA, ACT, University Sorbonne Paris Nord, 93430 Villetaneuse, France https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9620-5734
Caroline Cintas Unirouen, Unicaen, Unilehavre, NIMEC, Normandie University, 76000 Rouen, France https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9782-588X
Olivier Desplebin Unirouen, Unicaen, Unilehavre, NIMEC, Normandie University, 76000 Rouen, France https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1622-459X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.2024.5614

Keywords: Cultural and creative third places, Space, Organizing, Tensions, Alternative organization, Counterspaces

Abstract

Over the past years, third places have emerged worldwide. Being used as an umbrella concept, the term comprises various types of organizations without differentiating alternative organizations from capitalistic consumer spaces. This paper explores how cultural and creative third places (CCTPs) become alternative through tensions between space and organizing. It brings together two strands of literature, alternative organization and communicative constitution of organization (CCO), through the concept of counter spaces and uses ethnographic and process methodology to investigate an CCTP in a Paris suburb. Beyond two traditional tensions, individual work versus collective engagement and informal adjustment versus structuring, we find three specific ones: architectural constraints versus work needs, freedom versus institutionalization, and proximity to versus distance from local communities. These support the emergence of practices through which organizations become alternative. We contribute to the alternative organization literature by evidencing three tensions between space and organizing and the microprocess by which alternative CCTPs become counterspaces that are not a direct confrontation, proposing resistance through alternative practices. We also contribute to the CCO literature by stressing the key role of tensions in becoming alternative in artistic and creative organizations outside institutions.

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Author Biographies

Natalia Bobadilla, LabEx ICCA, ACT, University Sorbonne Paris Nord, 93430 Villetaneuse, France

Natalia Bobadilla is an associate professor in strategy and organization at the université Sorbonne Paris Nord, France. Her research focuses on the effects of organizational transformations (space, time, socio-materiality) on creativity and innovation, and the management of alternative, creative and R&D organizations. She uses longitudinal, ethnographic, processual and art-based methods. She has participated in collective research projects, notably based on art: “Arts and restructuring” and “Arts and critical management changes.” Nowadays, she is coordinating the Alter Places project: Alternative Cultural Places Laboratories for sustainable practices, ecological transition and urban resilience in the post COVID era?

Caroline Cintas, Unirouen, Unicaen, Unilehavre, NIMEC, Normandie University, 76000 Rouen, France

Caroline Cintas is senior lecturer in human resource management and organization and deputy director at IAE School of Management, University of Rouen Normandy, France. Her research focuses on social ties and organizational/managerial practices. She has worked on psychological violence, especially in psychiatric hospitals and health at work; on diversity management and religion in the workplace. She developed a research project on care ethics and has published several articles and books.

Olivier Desplebin, Unirouen, Unicaen, Unilehavre, NIMEC, Normandie University, 76000 Rouen, France

Olivier Desplebin is an associate professor in management sciences (IAE Rouen – NIMEC), and vice-president of the University of Rouen Normandy, in charge of lifelong learning and entrepreneurship. His research interests lie in the fields of organizational control and performance management, and focus on tools, management systems and their components designed to facilitate and improve group work, get individuals to interact and support collective action. His fields of study are organizations in which a relatively large number of players interact, with a particular focus on networks: seaports networks, peer-to-peer networks, social economy networks, cultural and creative third places, biodynamic viticulture.

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