TY - JOUR
T1 - Reflections on the role of bemusement in institutional disruption
AU - Vince, Russ
PY - 2021/7/1
Y1 - 2021/7/1
N2 - In this essay I reflect on the disruptive potential of bemusement. When people are bemused, we feel confused or bewildered. We can also feel wry pleasure, especially if we are bemused by something perplexing, that confounds expectations or norms. I explore how the affective tensions of bemusement can unsettle persons’ emotional investment in institutional order. I argue that disruption arises from surfacing the absurdities that are part of what is accepted as normal, and I illustrate this with a discussion of the ‘Dismaland Bemusement Park’. I assert the importance of confounding stability, order and rationality by recognizing the parallel existence of confusion, absurdity and illogics. Practical access to these parallel dynamics arises from the art of cultural subversion. Such an art both politicizes and gives pleasure to those involved in creative disruption; and it embraces the ensuing confusion as a critique – as a potentially insightful twist on institutional order.
AB - In this essay I reflect on the disruptive potential of bemusement. When people are bemused, we feel confused or bewildered. We can also feel wry pleasure, especially if we are bemused by something perplexing, that confounds expectations or norms. I explore how the affective tensions of bemusement can unsettle persons’ emotional investment in institutional order. I argue that disruption arises from surfacing the absurdities that are part of what is accepted as normal, and I illustrate this with a discussion of the ‘Dismaland Bemusement Park’. I assert the importance of confounding stability, order and rationality by recognizing the parallel existence of confusion, absurdity and illogics. Practical access to these parallel dynamics arises from the art of cultural subversion. Such an art both politicizes and gives pleasure to those involved in creative disruption; and it embraces the ensuing confusion as a critique – as a potentially insightful twist on institutional order.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072063379&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1056492619872272
DO - 10.1177/1056492619872272
M3 - Article
SN - 1056-4926
VL - 30
SP - 273
EP - 284
JO - Journal of Management Inquiry
JF - Journal of Management Inquiry
IS - 3
ER -