Hackathons as Affective Circuits: Technology, organizationality and affect

Endrissat, Nada; Islam, Gazi (2021). Hackathons as Affective Circuits: Technology, organizationality and affect Organization Studies, 43(7), pp. 1019-1047. SAGE 10.1177/01708406211053206

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Technology invites a reconsideration of organization and organizing by calling attention to mediated forms of value production among loose social collectives outside formal organizational boundaries. While the nascent concept of organizationality holds potential for such a re-conceptualization, the processes through which loose social members become invested in co-orientation and collective effort require further empirical and theoretical exploration. In this paper, we link organizationality research with critical media studies on affect and technology to theorize how affect holds provisional collectives together while promoting new modes of value extraction. Empirically, we draw from an ethnographic study of hackathons – transdigital innovation spaces where participants act with and through technology – and suggest three intertwined processes as part of an affective circuit that stokes and directs affect. The paper’s contribution is threefold. First, by analysing how affective circuits bind, integrate and co-orient action among loose members, we contribute to understanding organizationality as affectively constituted. Second, by showing how hackathons leverage desire for community, we offer a critical perspective on affective capture and argue that organizationality involves novel modes of value production. Third, we complement theorizing of hackathons by exploring them as sites of organizationality, focusing on the provisional, relational and affect-rich nature of new forms of organizing in the digital age.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	Business School > Institute for New Work Business School > Institute for New Work > New Forms of Work and Organisation Business School
Name:	Endrissat, Nada0000-0002-4758-8441 and Islam, Gazi
ISSN:	0170-8406
Publisher:	SAGE
Language:	English
Submitter:	Nada Endrissat
Date Deposited:	20 Dec 2021 15:51
Last Modified:	10 Jul 2022 01:35
Publisher DOI:	10.1177/01708406211053206
Uncontrolled Keywords:	affect, community, critical media studies, hackathon, new forms of organizing, new ways of working, organizationality, technology, value production
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.16134
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/16134