How Organizations Make People: Identities, Subjectivities, and Agencies (Part 1)

Modern individuals are shaped in and by organizations, which have thus proven to be indispensable agents in the process that classical sociology has referred to as socialization, or “people processing”. Not only has the number of organizations grown exponentially, people spend a substantial amount of time in (the vicinity of) organized settings, where they acquire behavioral skills, norms, values, modes of communication, (organizational or societal) roles, and templates for how to combine their different roles. Yet, organizational socialization seems to have become an outdated concept that plays only a minor role in current debates in sociology and its neighboring disciplines. We call this assessment into question and contend that as a matter of fact, many studies on such matters as organizational identity, subjectivity, (workplace) surveillance, professions, expertise, or organizational learning touch upon the issue. The session aims to ignite discussions between studies on these and related themes so as to shed new light on how organizations ‘make people’ as well as the (unintended) consequences of these activities.

We welcome both theoretical and empirical papers that address questions such as:

• How do organizations manufacture ‘docile subjects’ or, conversely, ‘agentic actors’ with rights, duties, and capabilities?
• What is the role of organizations in the construction of concepts of the – individual or collective – self?
• How does organizational socialization relate to social inequalities, and how does it affect their lives?
• How do people react to organizational socialization?
• How important are (digital) technologies in (the affirmation of or resistance to) organizational socialization?