What a writer
As my readers know, my Friday posts are about the weird and obscure stuff I find in economics and finance research. And since it is Bastille Day in France, I have to tell you about a finance professor who seems to be as French as they come. Not only does he publish articles both in English and in French, but he also does it with lots of references to continental philosophy: Bernard Leca from Essec Business School.
To be clear, I am not making fun of Mr. Leca. For that, I would have to understand what he is going on about, which is exceedingly difficult.
Here is the abstract of his latest paper in the journal Accounting Auditing Control:
Rhizomic digitized surveillance, contradictions, and managerial control practice: Insights from the Société Générale scandal
Research suggesting that digitization entails a rupture in MCSs towards rhizomic forms remains focused on MCSs’ formal aspects, and is speculative about related managerial control practices. We examine how digital surveillance systems are enacted in practice, focusing on their potential complexities, ambiguities, and shortcomings in contemporary organizational settings. We conceptualize our empirical inquiry using Foucault’s approach of the exercise of power, distinguishing surveillance systems (observation and norms) from control practices (examination). Our analysis provides a nuanced account of the evolution of MCSs and suggests that organizational surveillance digitization remains part of the disciplinary episteme. Although digital surveillance systems exhibit some rhizomic characteristics, we found contradictions within the norms (i.e., risk control and profit), outlining the importance of control practices in managing these contradictions. We question whether these contradictions are unintentional or deliberately designed to reduce control efficiency in digitized contexts and preserve certain operational practices.
Or this from a book he helped edit:
Materiality in Institutions – Spaces, Embodiment and Technology in Management and Organization
This book aims at clarifying the role of materiality, spaces, digitality and embodiment in institutional dynamics from the perspective of Management & Organization Studies. Presenting a rich set of theoretical, methodological and epistemological advances on materiality and institutions, it also gives voice to distinctive and diverse perspectives on materiality in institutions, structuring chapters into four major topics: artefacts and objects, digitality and information, space and time, body and embodiment. This book sparks discussion and debate about ontological dimensions of Management & Organization Studies, including post-discursive, visual, phenomenological and material.
Huh? I consider myself to be pretty well educated, but chapeau to Mr. Leca for showing me the limits of my knowledge.
I stopped at the word rhizomic which reminded me of when I was 18 years old and became passionate about '68 and everything that had to do with it, including the philosophers who had derived a series of books from that word. Then I realized that that mass of cryptic and inconclusive words had as their main purpose to favor the hooking up of girls in college. Since I already used the guitar for that purpose, I didn’t waste much more time on those books.
Joking aside, this makes me wonder about our society today. On one hand, we have a lot of useless information and activities that many people follow blindly. On the other hand, we have technical knowledge that grows rapidly and becomes detached from human nature. This creates a contrast between different kinds of societies. Some societies rely on ancient knowledge that helps them survive in harsh environments, where ignorance means death. For example, think of the children who survived a plane crash in the jungle. Other societies, like ours, allow people to live without any special skills, just consuming like pigs. I think this is the problem: useful knowledge has become something external to humans, and this may explain why our productivity is slowing down. Don't know if I made it clear
I have to admit that this English summary is not very clear. But the French one reads rather well ! Leca should select a better translation software.