TY - JOUR
T1 - Old skool spinning and syncing
T2 - memory, technologies, and occupational membership in a DJ community
AU - Foroughi, Hamid
AU - Eisenman, Micki
AU - Parsley, Samantha
PY - 2024/5/21
Y1 - 2024/5/21
N2 - We show how technology and its temporal instantiations act as material-relational mnemonic devices that provide temporal anchors for collective remembering in occupations and form the basis of what we call an 'occupational mnemonic community'. This is important because how the past is remembered shapes politics, the definition of membership and boundaries within occupations. Empirically, we focus on the occupation of DJing, an occupation that has witnessed major technological transformation. Utilizing interviews, archival research, and auto-ethnographic data, we show how DJs’ engagement with material mnemonic devices, here, DJing technology, aligns group members’ interpretations of the past, and forms the basis of an ‘occupational mnemonic community’. In our analysis, we uncover that imagined perceptions regarding how existing group members assess the material choices of newcomers, as well as, the performative behaviours exhibiting these choices, play pivotal roles in sustaining mnemonic communities. We conclude with a discussion on occupational mnemonic processes and their effect on establishing boundaries within occupations. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the sociomaterial aspects of collective memory and its significance in understanding the politics of memory in work communities and organizations.
AB - We show how technology and its temporal instantiations act as material-relational mnemonic devices that provide temporal anchors for collective remembering in occupations and form the basis of what we call an 'occupational mnemonic community'. This is important because how the past is remembered shapes politics, the definition of membership and boundaries within occupations. Empirically, we focus on the occupation of DJing, an occupation that has witnessed major technological transformation. Utilizing interviews, archival research, and auto-ethnographic data, we show how DJs’ engagement with material mnemonic devices, here, DJing technology, aligns group members’ interpretations of the past, and forms the basis of an ‘occupational mnemonic community’. In our analysis, we uncover that imagined perceptions regarding how existing group members assess the material choices of newcomers, as well as, the performative behaviours exhibiting these choices, play pivotal roles in sustaining mnemonic communities. We conclude with a discussion on occupational mnemonic processes and their effect on establishing boundaries within occupations. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the sociomaterial aspects of collective memory and its significance in understanding the politics of memory in work communities and organizations.
KW - boundary
KW - collective memory
KW - materiality
KW - mnemonic communities
KW - occupations
KW - organizational memory
KW - relationality
KW - technology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193738068&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/joms.13086
DO - 10.1111/joms.13086
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85193738068
SN - 0022-2380
JO - Journal of Management Studies
JF - Journal of Management Studies
ER -