BELONGING ON THE MOVE - MARKET RHETORIC AND THE FUTURE AS OBLIGATORY PASSAGE

Recent neglect of the concept of belonging may be traced to its subsum ption under matters of locality or kinship (concepts that have left it s theorising rather static and underdeveloped), as well as to theoreti cal understandings which try to keep distinct a logic of belonging fro m a logic of the market. In reworking a sociological tradition that fo rmerly associated the work of managers with a specific responsibility to induce conditions of belonging, at least within bureaucratic organi sations, the present study examines closely the rhetoric deployed in a large private sector organisation alongside its invention of 'interna l' markets. Adopting a consumption perspective, the paper argues that a 'rubbishing' of the past within organisations may be being aimed at undermining aspects of members' belonging. especially matters of tradi tion, loyalty and custom. In so much as these aspects once offered the mselves as 'resources' for managers' accounts (to themselves, their co lleagues and their superiors), their effacement as resources can be un derstood as helping reframe accounts in ways that not only colonise th e present and characterise the future, but sustain ambiguities vital t o the imposition of pseudo-market relations, such as those between 'pu rchasers' and 'providers'.