Organizing resistance/resisting organization: The embodied, material, and collective resistance of bike commuters

Elizabeth Dorothea Wilhoit, Purdue University

Abstract

This study is concerned with understanding the role of the material and the body in communication, explored through a phenomenological study of bike commuters. Through the act of biking to work, bike commuters resist cultural, transportation, and workplace norms. The communication of this resistance takes place primarily through cyclists' bodies, actions, interactions with space, and the material artifacts of biking (i.e., helmets, bike bags, or the bike itself). As bike commuters make themselves present in the space of the road or bring their helmet into their office, they express resistance through material presence. These material and embodied acts also serve as an impetus for discursive resistance as bike commuters' co-workers or neighbors inquire about their activities and initiate conversations. Additionally, bike commuters function as an organization through their collective resistance to transportation norms. However, these cyclists resist being organized as they emphasize the individual nature of their activity. This research provides several theoretical contributions. It proposes a rethinking of resistance in which resistive activities need not be planned and intentional, but can occur through mundane and everyday activities. Additionally, the findings suggest that the powerful can resist, challenging that which gives them their legitimacy. Resistance also can be a pleasurable activity, it does not need to be sacrificial. Furthermore, this study suggests a new way of thinking about material and embodied communication, where the material does not need to symbolize something or be spoken through by a human, but can speak for itself. Finally, this research illustrates the hybrid constitution of organizations between human and non-human agents, demonstrating that non-human agents can act in ways contrary to human intentions to form an organization. In addition to these theoretical contributions, this research provides a methodological contribution to the field of communication by introducing a new methodology, video autoethnography, for researching lived experience. This methodology is particularly suitable for studying material and spatial practices that are mobile, but also provides the capability to document experiences from the perspective of the participant, incorporate reflexivity of such experiences, and facilitate the articulation of experience and context in new ways.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Kisselburgh, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Communication|Organization Theory

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