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EXPRESS: Towards a practice-theoretical view of the situated nature of attention
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Nicolini, Davide and Mengis, Jeanne (2024) EXPRESS: Towards a practice-theoretical view of the situated nature of attention. Strategic Organization, 22 (1). pp. 211-234. doi:10.1177/14761270231183731 ISSN 1476-1270.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/14761270231183731
Abstract
In this paper, we examine how a practice-theoretical perspective may complement and expand the central tenet of the attention-based view (ABV) that attention is contextually situated. We put forward three main arguments.
First, the components that make a practice possible and that locates it in history and context (practice architecture) also prefigure a situated horizon of relevance and possibilities (pragmatic field of attention). Attention thus often befalls organizational members outside the realm of discursive consciousness as a consequence of being engaged in socio-material practices. Second, attention is situated at the crossroads of multiple practices, each with its practice architecture and local pragmatic field of attention. Organizational attention implies tensions, conflict, and contradictions and emerges from the interaction and negotiation of multiple individual and group pragmatic fields of attention. Finally, attention is situated in the temporal dynamics of sustaining and turning attention. This allows us to distinguish between inattention, dysfunctional distraction, and potentially productive attention turning.
We argue that by focusing on the ordinary and routinized nature of attention, a theoretical practice view complements and enriches the ABV by offering a less voluntarist and top-down view and proposing a richer view of situatedness. A practice-theoretical approach also distributes attention among a broader set of elements, offering resources to theorize how these elements are connected. The approach also establishes a link between paying attention and caring, thus bringing emotions back into the study of organizational attention. In turn, the ABV helps the practice-theoretical perspective to recognize the central role of attention in organizational matters and the importance of engaging in full with the organizational unit of analysis when dealing with attention-related issues
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School > Innovation, Knowledge & Organisational Networks Research Unit Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Attention -- Social aspects, Strategic planning , Cognition, Organizational sociology, Corporate culture | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Strategic Organization | ||||||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1476-1270 | ||||||||
Official Date: | February 2024 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 22 | ||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 211-234 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/14761270231183731 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Re-use Statement: | Posted ahead of print. Nicolini, Davide and Mengis, Jeanne (2023) Towards a practice-theoretical view of the situated nature of attention. Strategic Organization. Copyright © 2023 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://journals.sagepub.com/home/soq Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 6 June 2023 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 7 June 2023 | ||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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