City Research Online

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.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	This article is © Emerald Publishing Limited and permission has been granted for this version to appear here http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X2017000054A002. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Publishing Limited.
Publisher Keywords:	Imaginary, materiality, multimodal ensemble, representations
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Management

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