Moving Management: Theorizing Struggles against the Hegemony of Management

How do groups resist the apparently all encompassing discourse of management? Rejecting current theories of resistance as ‘re-appropriation’ or ‘micro-politics’, we argue that resistance may be thought about as hegemonic struggle which are undertaken by social movements. We identify four major resistance movements that engage with management: unions, organizational misbehaviour, civic movements, and civic movement organizations. We argue that these forms of resistance differ in terms of location (civil society or workplace) and strategy (political or infra-political). We chart out the possible interconnections between these different modes of resistance and detail how these interconnections are established. By doing this, the paper provides a framework for understanding the many forms of resistance movements that seek to disrupt the hegemonic discourse of management.