Contesting the Corporation
Struggle, Power and Resistance in Organizations

An analysis of the different ways in which power operates within modern corporations.

Peter Fleming (Author), André Spicer (Author)

9780521169530, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 December 2010

236 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.35 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Struggle, according to the authors of this engagingly readable book, is a defining feature of the employment relation, the nexus linking power and resistance. Within a clearly articulated theoretical frame, they offer vividly described evidence of this claim across a wide range of contemporary workplaces.' Steven Lukes, Professor of Sociology, New York University

In an age when large corporations dominate the economic and political landscape, it is tempting to think that their power goes largely unchecked. Originally published in 2007, Contesting the Corporation counters this view by showing that today's corporations are driven by political struggle, power plays and attempts to resist control. Building on a wide range of theoretical sources, Fleming and Spicer present an analysis of the different ways in which power operates within the modern workplace. They begin by building a theoretical perspective that synthesizes previous investigations of power and resistance, identifying struggle as a key concept. Each chapter illustrates a different dimension of workplace struggle through an array of original empirical studies relating to sexuality, cynicism, new social movements and new-wave trade unionism. The book concludes by demonstrating that social justice claims underlie even the most innocuous forms of resistance, helping to transform some of the largest modern corporations.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: prisons, playgrounds and parliaments
1. Faces of power in organizations
2. Faces of resistance at work
3. Struggle in organizations
4. Dis-identification and resentment: the case of cynicism
5. De-sexualizing work and the struggle for desire
6. Displacement and struggle: space, life and labour
7. Discursive struggle: the case of globalization in the public sector
8. Struggles for justice: wharfies, queers and capitalists
9. Struggles for common ground in organizations
Conclusion
Notes
References.

Subject Areas: Office & workplace [KJW], Corporate governance [KJR], Sociology: work & labour [JHBL]