Liminality in Management and Organization Studies: Process,Position and Place

This paper explores liminality, a concept receiving increased attention in management and organization studies and gaining prominence because of its capacity to capture the interstitial and temporary elements of organizing and work. The authors present a systematic review of the literature on liminality, covering 61 published papers, and undertake a critical analysis of how the concept of liminality has been used in prior research. This review reveals associations with three main themes: process; position; and place. For each theme, the authors identify the central research questions posed, while comparing individual and collective levels of analysis. During this process, the authors revisit several ideas central to the original, anthropological research on liminality, a perspective from which they suggest a rejuvenation of liminality research in management and organization studies. This paper argues for a greater focus on the liminal experience itself – especially its ritual and temporal dimensions – and for improving the comparative analysis of liminality following the three themes identified in this paper. The authors suggest that revising the agenda for liminality research along these lines could facilitate more informed responses to the challenges of an increasingly temporary and dynamic work life.     

Assimilation or Acculturation Problems of Aboriginal Families

Policies of colonisation and assimilation have had devastating consequences for Aboriginal people. Emphasis must be given to strategies far more diverse than economic development.     

Understanding variation in marital sexual pleasure: an impossible task?

Over the past twenty years, sociologists have begun to explore the social and cultural context within which sexual relationships are constructed and in Western society, given such importance. However, although it is commonly recognised that the contraceptive pill has changed the meaning of sexuality (Giddens, 1992; Ferguson, 1989) comparatively little attention has been paid to locating the level of pleasure married women derive from marital sex within the situational, structural and cultural parameters of their lives. The material in this paper is based on intensive interviews with 60 married women, aged 20–42 years old and randomly selected from the records of general medical practitioners in North London. The paper indicates that methodological squeamishness about the viability of a study of sexual pleasure is unwarranted. It shows that only just over one third of these respondents had a high level of sexual pleasure on the scale devised in the study (weighted kappa=.89). For the most part, such pleasure was not associated with other aspects of the marital relationship. Drawing on illustrative material, it locates such pleasure within the context of their marital and family situation and suggests future lines of enquiry.     

The Chinese-speaking Muslims (Dungans) of Central Asia: A Case of Multiple Identities in a Changing Context

Chinese-speaking Muslims, called Dungans in Central Asia and Huizu in China, were forced to migrate to present-day Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan at the end of the nineteenth century. They reconstructed their identity through interrelations with local populations and the soviet categorisation of nationality. But after 1991, their status has being gradually destabilised owing to the changes in economic, social and political rules as well as citizenship regulations in these countries. They have to readapt to the new situation created by the independence of the three former Soviet Republics, which has challenged their unity.     

Developing a typology of the 'duty to work', as experienced by lay persons with musculoskeletal disorders

Musculoskeletal diagnoses account for the majority of cases of reduced work capacity. This article investigates lay persons' strategies in relation to work and musculoskeletal disorders. Twenty interviews were conducted and analysed using grounded theory. A typology of self-presentations was developed. The interviewees' self-presentations revealed a strong sense of a 'duty to work'. This sense of duty took four different forms, leading us to categorise persons expressing particular forms as workaholics, work manics, workhorses or relaxed workers. Relaxed workers seem to have the best prognosis for recovery as they had a confident self-agency and worked to fulfil their own needs rather than those of others. This was in contrast to work manics, with an uncertain self-agency and driven to work by others' needs. In conclusion, awareness of such linguistic forms as self-attributions and idiomatic phrases provides an opportunity to identify and talk about individual's self-agency and driving forces in the recovery process.     

Class and the Construction of the 19th Century German Male Body

Between 1848 and 1871, the German male identity created by the popular German gymnastics movement became a civilized bourgeois identity, distinguished from an aristocratic identity and one associated with manual labor. Bourgeois gymnasts initiated this process but the rest of the mainly petty bourgeois gymnasts eventually adopted the civilized identity embodied through gymnastics. Complementing studies that show that the bourgeoisie's increasing social dominance was reflected in the class-based restriction of access to voluntary associations, this article shows that it also involved the adoption of practices that expressed a restrictive bourgeois identity. The article challenges previous explanations of changing gymnastics practices and Pierre Bourdieu's emphasis on the role of class distinction in explaining changes in sports practices.     

Individual Counseling for Sexually Abused Children: A Role for Animals and Storytelling

This article addresses the use of animal assisted therapy in individual counseling for sexually abused children. It focuses on how the animal can help the sexually abused child disclose abuse and express feelings. Storytelling forms a part of the treatment process. The author's clinical experience at Project Against Sexual Abuse of Appalachian Children in Knoxville, Tennessee, forms the basis for the article.     

Impact of physical activity on activity of daily living in moderate to severe dementia: a critical review

The objectives of this study were to describe the different modalities of physical activity programs designed for moderate to severe dementia and to identify their impact on functional independence in activities of daily living (ADL). A critical review of randomized controlled trials related to the impact of physical activity programs in moderately to severely demented persons on ADL performance and meta-analysis of the identified studies were performed. Among the 303 identified articles, five responded to the selection criteria. Four out of the five studies demonstrated limited methodological quality. In one high-quality study, physical activity programs significantly delayed deterioration of ADL performance. The program components and ADL assessment tools vary widely across studies. Although the proposed treatments have not proven their efficiency in improving the ADL status of the patients, they were able to limit the decline in ADL functioning. Future research is warranted in order to identify clinically relevant modalities for physical activity programs for people with moderate to severe dementia.