The outer limits: Monsters, actor networks and the writing of displacement

This article focuses on science fiction and actor network theory as ways of writing displacement which are relevant to organization studies. Recent wo rk within organizational theory and related (sub)disciplines has suggested that the articulation of organization as a privileged site of presence is m ade possible by that which is Othered and excluded (or rather deferred) as representing disorganization and disorder. Organizations in this view const itute 'incomplete and transient' accomplishments always under threat from v arious forms of intrusion and displacement. By way of illustration, two exa mples of displacement/ intrusion and their associated organizational 'drama s of proof' are examined as a way of exploring how the Other, the alien and out of place, is realized in representation.