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SIREN SImulation of REpetitive Networks is a computer model of repetitive construction such as the construction of multistory buildings, housing estates, linear projects, etc. The user interactively inputs a precedence diagram for the repetitive unit e.g., one floor of a skyscraper and additional “subnetworks” that are not part of the repetitive sequence e.g., first floor of skyscraper. From this information, the computer generates the whole network. Data is input via an IBMPC at which point extensive error checking is carried out. The model itself is coded in the GPSS language and runs on a remote mainframe computer. It simulates the various crews as they queue to carry out activities. A working schedule and cumulative cost curve are produced and statistics are gathered on crew and equipment utilization, all being output graphically. A MonteCarlo simulation is also included as probability distributions may be associated with the duration of each activity. This yields confidence intervals on cumulative costs throughout the project and on milestone attainment.

This paper argues that children and childhood constitute a ‘white space’ in organization studies, which should now be explored, mapped and analysed. Rather than being separate, children and organization are deeply implicated in one another, which provides a rich basis for theoretical inquiry. The paper draws on Spivak’s concept of the subaltern and on actor-network theory to articulate how and where organization studies might critically engage with, and find a place for, children and childhood. It frames such an inquiry around six potential research trajectories: epistemological, methodological, ontological, temporal, political and reflexive.

That we live in a time of unprecedented and ever-increasing change is both a shibboleth of our age and the more-or-less explicit justification for all manner of “strategic” actions. The seldom, if ever, questioned assumption is that our now is more ephemeral, more evanescent, than any that preceded it. In this essay, we subject this assumption to some critical scrutiny, utilizing a range of empirical detail. In the face of this assay we find the assumption to be considerably wanting. We suggest that what we are actually witnessing is mere acceleration, which we distinguish as intensification along a preexisting trajectory, parading as more substantive and radical movement away from a preexisting trajectory. Deploying Deleuze's (2004) terms we are, we suggest, in thrall to representation of the same at the expense of repetition of difference. Our consumption by acceleration, we argue, both occludes the lack of substantive change actually occurring while simultaneously delimiting possibilities of thinking of and enacting the truly radical. We also consider how this setup is maintained, thus attempting to shed some light on why we are seemingly running to stand still. As the Red Queen said, “it's necessary to run faster even to stay in the one place.”

There is a contemporary scepticism towards vision-based metaphors in management and organization studies that reflects a more general pattern across the social sciences. In short, there has been a shift away from ocularcentrism. This shift provides a useful basis for metatheoretical analysis of the philosophical discourse that informs organizational analysis. The article begins by briefly discussing the vision-generated, vision-centred interpretation of knowledge, truth, and reality that has characterized the western philosophical tradition. Taking late 18th-century rationalism as the high-point of ocularcentrism, the article then presents a metatheoretical framework based on three trajectories that critiques of ocularcentrism have subsequently taken. The first exposes the limits of the metaphor by, paradoxically, taking it to its limits. The second trajectory seeks to displace the primordial position of the ocular metaphor and replace it with an alternative lexicon based on other human senses. Last, the third trajectory describes how the Enlightenment ocular characterization of the visual and mental worlds has effectively been inverted in the postmodern moment.

Time is a construct or variable that is fundamental to a variety of theories of organizational change and strategic planning, as well as numerous mid-range models such as the product life cycle. In virtually all of these models, time is assumed to be unproblematic, independent, “out there”, and unilinear; time follows its own arrow. In contrast, a long standing tradition of research in the social sciences points out that time is socially constructed and that in any society a repertoire of chronological codes is employed. This paper seeks to build on the constructivist understanding of time by presenting a multi-layered view of time and by attempting to illustrate the processes through which time is constructed. In doing so, it draws heavily on actor-network theory with its emphasis on the heterogeneous processes involved in the construction of nature and society. This use of actor-network theory is illustrated with field material from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of the dynamics of organizing in the context of a construction project associated with the replacement of a control system in a pharmaceutical plant. Five different and interrelated categories of time are introduced to account for the multiple chronological codes we detected in our field study. The chronigami metaphor—a fusion of the Greek word for time, “chronos” and the word for the Japanese art of paper-folding “origami”—is introduced to illustrate our understanding of the processes involved in the construction and deconstruction of different forms of time.