Silent Tyranny of Code? Performativity, Encoding and Branding Work

Morgan-Thomas, A. (2017) Silent Tyranny of Code? Performativity, Encoding and Branding Work. 7th Organizations, Artefacts and Practices (OAP) International Workshop, Singapore, 17-18 Jun 2017. (Unpublished)

Abstract

The current project contributes to the emergent work on the ‘marketer research’ (Cochoy, 2011; Cochoy and Dubuisson-Quellier, 2013; Jacobi et al. 2015). Situated within a broader context of market studies (Araujo, Finch, & Kjellberg, 2010; Kjellberg & Helgesson, 2006; Zwick & Cayla, 2011), there is growing interest in the work of various market professionals, including human and non-human actors, implicated in creating, maintaining and disrupting markets (Beauvisage et al., 2012; Cochoy and Dubuisson-Quellier, 2013; Jacobi et al. 2015). Although the scholarship has examined a broad range of actors (e.g. Karpik, 2000, 2011; Mallard, 2000), only limited attention has been devoted to the role played by digital technologies (Beauvisage et al., 2012; Roscoe and Chillas, 2014). the study extends the “marketer research” programme into the digital domain by studying digital encoding and its performative outcomes in the context of branding work. The study argues that the implication of digital technologies for market work are best conceived in terms of performative effects of encoding where the latter encompasses “norm- or rule- governed material enactments accepted (or taken for granted) as the necessary conditions for beings to become what they are supposed to be” (Introna, 2011, p. 116). Nested within digital technologies, encoding (and codes) is performative in that its ongoing enactment produces what it assumes by configuring, circumscribing, delineating, signifying and legitimizing. Focusing on branding software (code), the project explores how code is co-instituted and co-implicated in the generation, stabilization and control of brands.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Unpublished
• Refereed: No
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Morgan-Thomas, Professor Anna
• Authors: Morgan-Thomas, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management