Multimodal imaginaries and the "big worm": Materialities, artefacts and analogies in São Paulo's urban renovation

Felippe De Medeiros Oliveira, Gazi Islam, Maria Laura Toraldo

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Recent interest in the multimodal accomplishment of organization has focused on the material and symbolic aspects of materiality. We argue that current literature invokes diverse "multimodal imaginaries," that is, ways of conceiving the relation between the material and the conceptual, and that the different imaginaries support a plurality of perspectives on materiality. Using the empirical case of a large urban renewal project in São Paulo, Brazil, we illustrate three different multimodal imaginaries - the concrete, the semiotic, and the mimetic - and indicate how each imaginary determines the way in which the site in question is discursively constructed. After outlining the different approaches, we discuss their theoretical implications, advantages, and constraints, setting an agenda for future studies of materiality in organizational and institutional contexts.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)27-62
    Number of pages36
    JournalResearch in the Sociology of Organizations
    Volume54A
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Keywords

    • Imaginary
    • Materiality
    • Multimodal ensemble
    • Representations

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Sociology and Political Science
    • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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