Introduction to the Routledge Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organization

The time is ripe for a Handbook of the Communicative Constitution of Organization (CCO). Because this body of thought is rich, diverse, and continually developing, this introductory chapter pursues several aims. It begins by locating the emergence and institutionalization of CCO theorizing in space and time, and outlines what it means to approach the social world with a CCO sensibility. It then moves to the overarching themes and key questions that drive CCO scholarship today. It demonstrates how these questions—of ontology, agency (which implies authority and the situation), and (dis)organization—are the axes around which CCO’s three primary schools of thought revolve. From there, the introduction takes up some of the vectors of division across the CCO community: Contrasting conceptions of communicative events, agency, and materiality. Finally, it sketches several areas for the field’s future development and delineates the contributions made by the chapters comprising the Handbook’s four sections. If this is the moment to mark the significance of CCO thinking and to set an agenda for its future, the set of chapters to follow are more than up to the task.