Organization as Chaosmos

Abstract

Drawing on the philosophy of Cornelius Castoriadis, I argue that organization is an ever incomplete effort to shape chaos and formlessness. More specifically, organization consists of three ontological components, each pointing to a different function/process: representation, meaning-making, and improvisation. First, portions of the world need to be re-presented in terms of the ensidic logic for an entity to become organized. Secondly, while through representation human actions are sought to be decontextualized, they are necessarily rooted in the practice of a particular community, through which they acquire collectively shared meanings. Thirdly, both syntax (rules) and semantics (meanings) are applied by concrete people in a concrete world, which is infinitely more complex than its representations. There is always a phronetic gap between representations and the world, which is filled in through actors improvising. When a human system is said to be organized, all three functions/processes must be in place.