Resumo

Space is an important dimension to understand various dynamics in organizational contexts, but the most part of the literature in organizational studies marginalized this dimension. In recent years, however, the ‘spatial turn’ reached the area of study and many space researches appeared. In this emergent literature, we did not identify a ‘practice approach’ to understand space in organizational contexts.

The following question guides this paper: How can we think about space in organizational studies through the practice idiom? Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop a ‘Space-as-Practice’ view to space research in organizational studies.

With the term ‘practice approach’, we mean a different idiom to read the social world – a practice idiom – that sees the world in flux, where social entities are the result of ongoing activities (NICOLINI, 2012). Practice theory is a cultural theory, which explains “[…] actions by reconstructing the symbolic structures of knowledge which enable and constrain the agents to interpret the world according to certain forms […]” (RECKWITZ, 2002, p. 245).

We developed a literature review about space and practice in organizational studies.

As a result, we construct the cornerstones of the Space-as-Practice view, specially regarding to ontological, epistemological and methodological aspects. In ontological terms, we argue that space is not an entity, rather space is a practice, a spatializing process. In theoretical terms, we suggest theorists that follows this dynamic view of space, for example Michel de Certeau and Gilles Deleuze. And in methodological terms, we suggest methods commonly applied to Practice-Based Studies (PBS). Finally, we cite some empirical studies that tried this understanding organizational spatiality.

In developing the cornerstones of the Space-as-Practice view, this article highlights some ontological, epistemological e methodological assumptions of this approach and finishes with a research agenda to future studies in this area.

NICOLINI, D. Introduction. ______. Practice theory, work, and organization: an introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Cap. 1, p. 1-19. RECKWITZ, A. Toward a theory of social practices: a development in culturalist theorizing. European Journal of Social Theory, Thousand Oaks, v. 5, n. 2, p. 243-263, 2002.