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  • Ethics and entangled embodiment final version before publication

    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Organization, 22 (2), 2015, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2015 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Organization page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/org on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

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Ethics and entangled embodiment: bodies-materialities-organization

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>03/2015
<mark>Journal</mark>Organization
Issue number2
Volume22
Number of pages17
Pages (from-to)166-182
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date1/12/14
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

In this article, we are concerned with the ethical implications of the entanglement of embodiment and non-human materialities. We argue for an approach to embodiment which recognises its inextricable relationship with multiple materialities. From this, three ethical points are made: first, we argue for an ethical relation to ‘things’ not simply as inanimate objects but as the neglected Others of humanity’s (social and material) world. Second, there is a need to recognise different particularities within these entanglements. We draw on the work of Merleau-Ponty and Levinas to think through how the radical alterity of these Others can be acknowledged, whilst also recognising our intercorporeal intertwining with them. Third, we argue that recognition of this interconnectedness and entanglement is a necessary ethical and political position from which the drawing of boundaries and creation of separations that are inherent in social organising can be understood and which contribute to the denigration, discrimination and dismissal of particular forms of embodiment, including those of non-human Others. In order to explore the ethical implications of these entanglements, we draw upon fieldwork in a large UK-based not-for-profit organisation which seeks to provide support for disabled people through a diverse range of services. Examining entanglements in relation to the disabled body makes visible and problematises the multiple differences of embodiments and their various interrelationships with materiality.

Bibliographic note

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Organization, 22 (2), 2015, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2015 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Organization page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/org on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/