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This article uses an analysis of social studies of finance to explore Andrew Abbott's ideas about how we construct 'new' social theory. Drawing on Abbott, it is argued that social studies of finance tend as much towards the recycling of existing conjecture as the presentation of markedly novel argument. Yet Abbott's position also questions such potential critique by suggesting that theoretical recycling and recombination represent 'normal', and often creative, academic behaviour.

This paper uses historical studies as a means to explore the relation of organizations to subjectivity. The first part of the paper illustrates this relation through exploring the work of Elias, Kieser and Brewer. It focuses on the interrelation between 18th-century freemasonry, the emergence of complex financial credit networks and figurational shifts in power relation. The second part of the paper uses the prior analysis in order to engage with recent debate concerning history, organizations and subjectivity. First, the issue of whether we can ascribe continuity, closure and unity to subjectivity is examined. Second, the 'default' assumption of historical continuity is debated, drawing on studies by Baert, Jacques, Halttunen and Morgan. In contrasting between 'traditional' history and the alternative assumptions contained in post-structural and Foucauldian work, the paper argues for openness rather than rebuttal of particular positions. It suggests that subjectivity, such as that of employees, should be thought of as mobile, yet selectively continuous. It also argues that it is unnecessary to choose between historical positions, such as that which prioritizes historical discontinuity over continuity (or vice versa).

This article addresses perceived difference in temporal pace within nature and considers how epistemological debate is conditioned by such difference, drawing on the work of Norbert Elias. The first part of the article debates the equivalence of `natural time' and `social time'. The acceleration of human social pace is also explored, along with the human capacity for plasticity and change, and the contrast which such plasticity presents in relation to the seeming longevity of many natural processes. The epistemological implications of these arguments are considered in the second part of the article, focusing on the difficulties which human plasticity creates for current social theory (with particular attention to critical realism). In the final part of the article, the foregoing discussion is used to re-evaluate sociologies of nature through reference to the sociology of the body.

In this introductory paper, I use a quotation from Elias's (1992) essay on time in order to introduce some key Eliasian concepts. I then explore the relation between power, interdependency and subjectivity through reference to Elias's oft-cited studies of court society as well as his less known analyses of time. Drawing on these referents, I discuss the relation of Elias to current organization theory focusing on Foucauldian work, Marx and labour process theory and, especially, actor-network theory. Eliasian argument has a number of points of contact with current fields of organizational analysis such as organizational strategy, violence in organizations, emotion in organizations, knowledge and discourse, globalization, organizations and the natural environment, etc. The paper briefly reviews such examples before considering certain limitations in Elias's conceptualization of interdependency and subjectivity.

This paper links the ideas of Norbert Elias to the conceptualisation of power and subjectivity that has developed in British industrial and organisational (I/O) sociology. It examines the relevance of power and subjectivity to British I/O sociology and reviews theoretical positions that have influenced this field. Elias's work is examined in some detail, exploring his approach to power, agency, the self, individualisation and discourse. His work is then applied to a re-examination of the perspectives on power and subjectivity contained within labour process, Foucauldian and actor network theory. The paper attempts to show how Elias's work re-frames our understanding of power and subjectivity through a stress on interdependencies and their asymmetry, the `networked' nature of agency, and the interwoven form of human and socio-political development. It argues that Eliasian analysis maintains the critical concern with power asymmetries witnessed in labour process theory, yet avoids some of the difficulties in conceptualisation of power and subjectivity that are apparent in labour process, Foucauldian work and actor network theory. Elias's work also illustrates the need for a lengthier historical perspective than is typically observed in industrial and organisational sociology, and points to the value of studies which look beyond the context of the workplace. Finally, attention is paid to some of the limitations of Elias's work.

This paper examines the promise of Foucault as a vehicle for addressing subjectivity and organizations. It questions the supposed non-essentialism and nondualism of Foucauldian work, and argues that such work has difficulties in theorizing agency, and the relation between self and discourse. Though the paper is critical of previous attacks on the anti-materialistic stance of Foucauldian work, it nevertheless suggests that Foucauldian studies have been unable to adequately theorize 'material' relations, and that they have so far provided an inadequate basis by which to develop an ethics of either individual or collective change. In developing this critique, the paper largely focuses on Foucauldian work rather than the text of Foucault himself, though some attention is paid to Volumes 1 to 3 of The History of Sexuality. Feminist work is also employed in order to illustrate the limitations of Foucault in theorizing the self and subjectivity.

This paper applies the work of Callon in attempting to explore the relation between discourse and agency in an analysis of the hiring of management consultants by a large life insurance organisation, `Lifeco'. The data focus on the recruitment and deployment of management consultants within Lifeco, and explore the actor network relevant to this process. As well as examining the `moments' of translation within the network, attention is paid to the degree of longer term `convergence' (Callon 1991) around the consultant's work within Lifeco. Whilst acknowledging the advantage of Callon's work to exploring agency and discourse, the paper remains critical of certain aspects of his theorising, especially the question of access to particular locations in an actor network.

This paper presents a re-reading of the Foucauldian analysis of professional accounting firms given by Grey in his `Career as a Project of the Self...' ( Sociology, 28,2). It argues that Grey's paper provides an exemplar of the `desocialising' tendencies observed in some Foucauldian analysis and attempts to illustrate this desocialisation through placing Grey's data in an Eliasian rather than a Foucauldian framework.

This paper explores the growing critique of postmodernism within organization studies. It first outlines central aspects of this critique, such as the allegation that postmodernism tends towards a reactionary stance, its dubious epochal status and the incompatibility of postmodernist epistemology with `serious' organizational analysis. The paper pays particular attention to the conflict between postmodern epistemology and the need for action, since it is argued that this remains a central dilemma created by postmodernist debates. Feminist discourse is drawn on in order to examine the difficulties, as well as the possibilities, of squaring postmodern epistemology with action. The remainder of the paper focuses on the critique of postmodernism within organization studies, and relates this critique to the work of feminist writers.

In this paper, we address debate about social constructionism and critical realism by examining current concerns relating to the carbon economy, climate change and related ecological issues. At the same time, we consider the implications of our discussion for processes of governance. Following an introduction, we present three varied sets of argument by ourselves as Editors. We then conclude the paper by briefly introducing each of the papers included in this Themed Section.