Chrysanthemums and swords: A reading of contemporary organizational communication theory and research

Abstract

CERTAIN TRUTHS ABOUT THE SOCIAL SCIENCES today seem self‐evident. One is that in recent years there has been an enormous amount of genre mixing in social science, as in intellectual life generally, and such blurring of kinds is continuing apace. Another is that many social scientists have turned away from a laws‐and‐instances ideal of explanation toward a cases‐and‐interpretations one, looking less for the sort of thing that connects planets and pendulums and more for the sort that connects chrysanthemums and swords. … Something is happening to the way we think about the way we think (Geertz, 1970, pp. 165, 166).