Ocularcentrism and its others: A framework for metatheoretical analysis

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files
C10a_ocularcentrismOS.pdf(228.93 KB)
Accepted Version
Date
2004-03-01
Authors
Kavanagh, Donncha
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage Publications
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
There is a contemporary scepticism towards vision-based metaphors in management and organization studies that reflects a more general pattern across the social sciences. In short, there has been a shift away from ocularcentrism. This shift provides a useful basis for metatheoretical analysis of the philosophical discourse that informs organizational analysis. The article begins by briefly discussing the vision-generated, vision-centred interpretation of knowledge, truth, and reality that has characterized the western philosophical tradition. Taking late 18th-century rationalism as the high-point of ocularcentrism, the article then presents a metatheoretical framework based on three trajectories that critiques of ocularcentrism have subsequently taken. The first exposes the limits of the metaphor by, paradoxically, taking it to its limits. The second trajectory seeks to displace the primordial position of the ocular metaphor and replace it with an alternative lexicon based on other human senses. Last, the third trajectory describes how the Enlightenment ocular characterization of the visual and mental worlds has effectively been inverted in the postmodern moment.
Description
Keywords
Ocularcentrism , Metatheory , Philosophy , Epistemology , Paradigms , Vision , Science
Citation
Kavanagh, D. (2004) 'Ocularcentrism and its others: A framework for metatheoretical analysis,' Organization Studies, 25(3), pp. 445-464. http://oss.sagepub.com/content/25/3/445.abstract
Copyright
© 2004 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA & New Delhi)