The temporal-enduring paradox : the case of Umeå capital of culture 2014

• In the long term, all organizations may be temporary. Some, however, are more temporary than others. Temporary organizations are designed not so much with an eye on enduring as on accomplishing a specific task. In this chapter, we explore paradoxes, understood as persistent mutually defining oppositions that occur at the intersection of 'the temporary' and 'the enduring'. To do so, we discuss the concept of memory, which we use to explore the process of preserving and reproducing memories of people and events as a bridge between the temporalities of organizing that is past and was never intended to endure, and those that are ongoing. By reconstructing one case of the European Capital of Culture initiative, we discuss memory as critical to temporary organizations in the sense that temporary organizations always have a memory that affords continuity: hence are enduring. We argue that there is endurance in the temporary and temporariness in endurance: expressing the paradoxical essence of organizing.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Temporary organizations

permanent organizations

enduring organizations

paradox

paradox theory

memory

företagsekonomi

Business Studies

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)