Abstract/Summary

This doctoral work delves into non-traditional configurations of people and things delivering arts projects outside the dominant paradigm of academia/gallery/museum while crossing borders of any kind. Although investigated by art and humanities researchers, such uncommon partnerships have yet to be studied as ‘proper’ organisational facts. The work progressed by taking advantage of theoretical eclecticism, composed of different standpoints. It is placed within the stream of practice-based studies (PBS,) and in conjunction with sociomateriality. It also adopts concepts from the boundary work literature (Langley et al., 2019) and applies an ecology metaphor to capture the ‘messy’ interactions emerging in the field. The development of a meta-paradigm as such is relevant for Organisation Studies (OS) scholars as it enables a framework to expose forms of organising that are alternative to the dominant business entities, which by thrift, solidarity or commoning are foundational economic practices in lieu of the accumulation of wealth. Findings from the thesis are therefore important as they contribute to understandings that could be attached to CSR endeavours or NGOs initiatives outside the arts&cultural realm, and ultimately capture the legacies that uncommon partnerships leave behind. The investigation asks a set of questions related to the project instigators’ roles and their work; the partnership working performed by the uncommon partners; the field of interactions where uncommon partners assemble; the arts&cultural project around which uncommon partners assemble. The application of the thesis’s framework to the specific contexts revealed: i) the professional persona of the Assembler; ii) the four textures of ‘assemblage practices’ carried by the Assembler (practices of speculation, care, mundanity and border curation) connected through the practical frame; iii) the process of Powering-Along which by the assemblage develops and arts&cultural projects are delivered. This also uncovered the presence of a site-specific emotional dimension composed of emotions carried by humans, emotional qualities induced by non-humans and an emotional state held by the field. While in the field conducting observations and partaking in the organisational life of a specific arts&cultural project – the Company Drinks – a bundle of surprise findings emerged, leading to conceptualise the construct of ‘creative boundary object’ (CBO), owning strong ethical and aesthetical qualities and the construct of dialogical artefacts’ (DAs), showing the things can talk, frame, script and think.