Abstract
In this article you will be invited into the transformational nature of the re-authoring lens and practices for organisational work. Re-authoring work facilitates ways of seeing and doing that invites individuals, communities and organisations to take back the pen in the authoring of their lives and their worlds. It builds on the human capacity to weave meaning into narratives in our given world. As we do this work, the beauty, dignity and knowledges of individuals and communities are deeply honoured. You will be taken on a journey through the theory and practices in three examples that show how collective meaning-making, deconstruction of societal discourses, and the imagining of futures and human dignity open magical doors into unknown worlds. Re-authoring work opens up new possibilities and imagined futures wherein human beings co-author their relationships with all things of the world.
This chapter has been translated and or adapted from the following published documents: Connect your story manual; Rooting Narrative Work: A letter to Re-authoring in Re-authoring Futures Con-Texts; Moments to Stories—Chené Swart’s Moments Portal, Re-Authoring Futures—What’s in a title?; and A conversation about re-authoring futures with Chené Swart in blog posts on the www.beyondstorytelling.com website. A prior version of this chapter has been published by Chené Swart on www.transformations.co.za under the title, Re-authoring the World: Unfolding Ideas and Practices. Reused here with permission from the author Chené Swart.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Read more about the topic of storytelling in Jacques Chlopczyk’s chapter, Why Storytelling, Why Now?: Circling around a buzzword (pp. 20–26), in Re-authoring Futures: Con-texts.
- 2.
In many conversations Tom Carlson and I shared between 2015 and 2017, Tom spoke about the ‘re-dignification of the other’. Over the years I have referred to practices of respect in various ways, but since my conversations with Tom, I have come to call these practices, re-dignifying practices.
- 3.
In the chapter Re-authoring the Future of Travel and Hospitality: An Inquiring and Generative Re-authoring Practice in Tourism Flanders that I co-authored with Griet Bouwen and Marianne Schapmans, you will find a description of the transforming organisational practice and ideas of re-authoring work.
- 4.
If you are interested in reading more about this transformative exploration, follow the link https://www.toerismevlaanderen.be/toerismevandetoekomst
- 5.
References
Block, P. (2008). Community: The structure of belonging. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Bouwen, G., Schapmans, M., & Swart, C. (2019). Re-authoring the future of travel and hospitality – An inquiring and generative re-authoring practice in Tourism. In J. Chlopczyk & C. Erlach (Eds.), Transforming organizations. Heidelberg: Springer.
Bushe, G. R., & Marshak, R. J. (2015a). Dialogic organization development: The theory and practice of transformational change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Bushe, G. R., & Marshak, R. J. (2015b). Introduction to the dialogic organization development mindset. In G. R. Bushe & R. J. Marshak (Eds.), Dialogic organization development: The theory and practice of transformational change (pp. 11–32). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Carlson, T. (2017). Notes for the spirit of narrative conference. Benoni, South Africa.
Carlson, T., & Epston, D. (2017). Insider witnessing practice: Performing hope and beauty in narrative therapy. Journal of Narrative Family Therapy, 1, 19–38. Retrieved from www.journalnft.com
Carlson, T., & Swart, C. (2015–2017). Conversations and correspondence.
Epston, D., & White, M. (1990). Narrative means to therapeutic ends. New York: W.W. Norton.
Gumbrecht, H. U. (2004). The production of presence: What meaning cannot convey. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Gumbrecht, H. U. (2014). Our broad present: Time and contemporary culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
Lindemann Nelson, H. (2001). Damaged identities, narrative repair. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Marshak, R. J., Grant, D. S., & Floris, M. (2015). Discourse and dialogic organization development. In G. R. Bushe & R. J. Marshak (Eds.), Dialogic organization development: The theory and practice of transformational change (pp. 77–99). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Myerhoff, B. (1982). Life history among the elderly: Performance, visibility and remembering. In J. Ruby (Ed.), A crack in the mirror: Reflexive perspectives in anthropology. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Myerhoff, B. (1986). “Life, not death in Venice”: Its second life. In H. E. Goldberg (Ed.), Judaism viewed from within and from without: Anthropological studies. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Swart, C. (2013). Re-authoring the world: The narrative lens and practices for organisations, communities and individuals. Randburg, ZA: Knowres.
White, M. (2004). Narrative practice and exotic lives. Adelaide, AU: Dulwich Centre.
White, M. (2005). Michael White workshop notes. Published on September, 21, from www.dulwichcentre.com.au
White, M. (2007, April 1). Trauma and narrative therapy. Part 1. New York. [Online]. Retrieved June 16, 2016, from https://vimeo.com/34671797
Winslade, J. (2009). Tracing lines of flight: Implications of the work of Gilles Deleuze for narrative practice. Family Process, 48, 332–346.
Zimmerman, J. (2018). Neuro-narrative therapy: New possibilities for emotion-filled conversations. New York: W.W. Norton.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Swart, C. (2019). Transforming Organisations Through the Re-authoring Lens and Practices. In: Chlopczyk, J., Erlach, C. (eds) Transforming Organizations. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17851-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17851-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-17850-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17851-2
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)