Utopia in Popular Management Writing and the Music of Bruce Springsteen
Do You Believe in the Promised Land
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2165577 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carl Rhodes (0000-0002-6571-2872, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 2004-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Consumption Markets & Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1025-3866 • E-ISSN: 1477-223X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/1025386042000212374 |
| OpenAlex | W2132260566 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 21 |
This paper interrogates and contrasts representations of work and Utopia in two examples of popular culture. The examples are a sample of contemporary popular management books and a sample of work-related themes in the popular music of Bruce Springsteen. In comparing the two the paper examines how they both use utopian representations as a key element of their claims, yet do so in markedly different ways. It is argued that Springsteen uses a "voice from within" to explore the ambiguities and paradoxes that emerge from the gap between real experience and utopian desire. Conversely, popular management books tend to speak from a "voice from above" that actively suppress ambiguity and ignore power in order to reproduce the dominant ethos of contemporary capitalism. Thus while popular management provides uncritical support for its imaginary Utopia, Springsteen provides a compelling critique of the promises of economic freedom through capitalism—promises which management writers are so often complicit in (re)producing
Art · Art history · Literature · Utopia · Music History and Culture · Race, History, and American Society · Theater, Performance, and Music History
‘Macho’ managers and organizational heroes
Writing Responsibly
Images of Organizing in Popular Culture
Meaningful work? Nonprofit marketization and work/ life imbalance in popular autobiographies of social entrepreneurship
Commercial gender
Deconstructing the manager
Music and Meaning on the Factory Floor
Experience economy in the making
Revelations of cultural consumer lovemaps in Jamaican dancehall lyrics
Business Ethics and the Origins of Contemporary Capitalism
Sexing the Groove
Ideology and Utopia
Coffee and the Business of Pleasure
Revisiting the Culture Industry Thesis
Literacy and a Popular Medium
The Myth of Management
Critically Constituting Organization
Science, Knowledge and Society
Rhythm and Resistance
A Tale of Two Enclosures
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.43 |
| Citation span | 2005 - 2012 (8) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |