If on a summer’s day a researcher: the implied author and the implied reader in writing differently
- Publisher:
- ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Culture and Organization, 2023, 29, (6), pp. 512-527
- Issue Date:
- 2023-01-01
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You are scrolling through the results of your latest search for papers. You wade through the papers you’ve been planning to read for ages; papers you could put aside to read this summer; papers you say you’ve read but really haven’t; papers you’ve actually read … but don’t remember; when a paper catches your eye. You prepare to puzzle through the complex explanations of VERY IMPORTANT CONCEPTS and the (unfulfilled?) promise of a contribution to *the literature*. But as you start reading you are pleasantly surprised. The tone is almost jovial; the writing is fresh and accessible. But there seems to be an error; the paper is missing the discussion and conclusion. You try and track down the original paper but end up with a different one. You contact the journal and ask for a replacement, only to find yourself with a different paper again. Slowly, however, you are beginning to enjoy yourself. Each paper you read leads you on a different journey. A flurry of words, styles, genres, tones. And in all the papers is you: the reader, the writer, the text. * * * Inspired by If on a Winter’s Night a traveller by Italo Calvino this paper explores the intimate relationships between the reader, the writer, and the text. I interweave second person tales of a writer and a reader, trying to write a text across time and space, with reflections on the value of the concepts of the ‘implied author’ and ‘implied reader’ for writing differently in management and organisation studies. In particular, I give attention to an often overlooked, yet ever present, part of writing differently in organisation studies: the reader. I address the reader as someone who, like the writer, is actively produced through engagement with the text and the according political and aesthetic implications. Ultimately, I argue that it matters deeply how readers are positioned in texts and how the reader comes to understand themselves through the text for realising the potential of writing differently.
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