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This paper inquires into the dynamic imaginaries of the Ethereum project. We present Ethereum as animated by three such imaginaries: the world computer (technical), productive money (economic) and public goods (political). We examine how these imaginaries are materialized, carried forward and evolve through the Ethereum ecosystem, focusing on how Ethereum's prefigurative logic underpins this dynamism. In our analysis, we pay particular attention to how the imaginaries overlap and often generate contradictions that nonetheless do not seem to undermine the cohesion of the project. We introduce the concept of 'prefigurative imaginaries' to describe how prefiguration works to create multiple, mutually entangled but distinct imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a conversation between a management academic and a practitioner from the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the largest sporting and cultural organisation in Ireland. The GAA is an alternative organisation in that it (a) has a particular understanding of 'management', (b) emphasises place and community, (c) prohibits a market for players; (d) is volunteer-led; (e) operates on democratic principles; and (f) is concerned with more than sport. In the conversation, the practitioner asserts that, for him, critical performativity is arrogant and self-serving, with academics using practitioners as tropes in faux performative research. Instead, he argues that academic practice should become normative with academics becoming critics, adjudicating on what's good and the bad in their objects of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockocracies are a coherent, distinctive and novel organizational form bound by a collective ledger and a cryptocurrency. We frame our analysis of blockocracies against Weber's enduring description of bureaucracy, identifying those features of Weberian bureaucracies that are present, absent or marginalized in blockocracies. In contrast to bureaucracy's monocratic authority structure, authority in blockocracies is centered on four distinct layers. In each layer, there is governance of the code and governance by the code, and in the latter we distinguish between endogenous and exogenous rules. We also compare the "blockocrat" with Weber's depiction of the bureaucrat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptocurrencies are a hotly debated topic because it is not clear why they should be valued as they are. Bitcoin, by far the most prominent cryptocurrency, currently trades around $9,500 USD. "Why is Bitcoin valuable?" is a question often heard but seldom answered well. It is not the legal tender of any nation, nor does it represent anything of physical or intrinsic value. Some people attribute its value to its scarcity, others to its anonymity, and others to its immutability, all of which are created and managed by a computer algorithm. Current theories fail to explain Bitcoin's value, or it is not immediately apparent how they might explain it. We are therefore motivated to investigate the sources of cryptocurrency value through the emergent value systems of the Bitcoin community. We use concourse theory and Q-methodology to discover five types of Bitcoin value systems that are complementary and coexisting facets of a collective whole, each type being its own internally consistent "theory" of value, and therefore our typology avoids simplistic generalizations about cryptocurrencies and the motivations behind those involved. We named the types: Fintech, Libertarians, Purists, Average Joe, and Gentrifier. Of interest, four of the five types we identified appear not to value Bitcoin for its monetary or market value, despite what is usually assumed. Instead, Bitcoin is associated with its potential as an alternative currency that may be used to exchange value, to mitigate various forms of risk, or as a force for social and cultural change. These five types may also underlie broader digital innovation processes and provide a basis from which to understand them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of changes in corporate law in the mid-nineteenth century – incorporation and limited liability – on the ownership, control and socio-economic objectives of a Quaker family firm between 1841 and 1972. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) were well-known for adhering to internalized quasi-legal rules and self-governance, and had a strong reputation, which persists today, for trust, integrity and honesty in all business dealings. We read existing archival research on Quaker firm Huntley & Palmer (the biscuit manufacturer) against the grain to trace how incorporation and limited liability fundamentally changed its capital structure and the family's control of the firm and which, in turn, led to a gradual weakening of its social ambitions. We argue that changes to the law are akin to changing the rules of the game within which players' play, and we show how Quaker quasi-legal rules became subordinate to corporate law resulting in unexpected and non-trivial impacts that play out over long, longitudinal periods of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infrastructures are typically seen as boring and serious, and are routinely depicted using metaphors from transportation. We argue that the carnival is a fruitful metaphor for understanding emerging information infrastructures, as the information age is also the age of the carnival. We distinguish between the ubiquitous or distal carnival and its particular manifestations – the proximate carnival – both of which are characterized by play, anarchy, dissimulation, vulgar language, and excessive consumption. The article focuses on Bitcoin, which we see as a nascent information infrastructure and an exemplary instance of a proximate carnival. It also considers how the carnival metaphor might help us reimagine our study of the information age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As we work our way through the latest financial crisis, politicians seem both powerless to act convincingly and unable to craft from the welter of diverse and antagonistic narratives a coherent and convincing vision of the future. In this article, we argue that a temporal lens brings clarity to such confusion, and that thinking in terms of time and reflecting on privileged temporal structures helps to highlight underlying assumptions and distinguish different narratives from one another. We begin by articulating our understanding of temporality, and we proceed to apply this to the evolution of financial practice during different historical epochs as recently delineated by Gordon (2012). We argue that the principles of finance were effectively in place by the eighteenth century and that consequent developments are best conceptualized as phases in which one particular aspect is intensified. We find that in different historical periods, the temporal intensification associated with specific models of finance shifts, over history, from the past to the present to the future. We argue that a quite idiosyncratic understanding of the future has been intensified in the present phase, what we refer to as proximal future, and we explain how this has come to be. We then consider the ethical consequences of privileging an intensification of proximal future before mapping an alternative model centred on intensifying distal future, highlighting early signs of its potential emergence in the shadows of our present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While 'new technology' and 'strategy' are pervasive and foundational to this journal's inquiry, each term is filled with ambiguity. This paper seeks to extend our understanding by developing a model relating technology to strategy. The model is a two-by-two frame based on the distinction between 'planned' vs 'emergent' strategy and 'latent' vs 'sensible' technology. The frame generates four distinct domains that we label 'development', 'capitalisation', 'creation' and 'cultivation'. The paper then considers the 'creation' quadrant through a case history of the stent industry. This case indicates that (a) new technologies lack the 'revolutionary' characteristic with which they are normally associated; (b) that the courthouse rather than the marketplace is an important if not primary domain where new technology firms compete; and (c) that new technology firms are much more aggressive when interacting with other new technology firms than they are with firms from the existing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers relations between violence and organization as seen through the lens moulded by Rene Girard. This is because more than any other writer of his generation Girard postulates the primacy of violence in his sociological theorising. In this paper we first outline Girard's theory. Next we discuss this in relation to Freudian theories of organization. We then draw out some of the implications of his theory for the understanding of topics within Organization Theory, such as bureaucracy and sexual harassment. Finally we suggest a research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fans are a group that are stigmatized and discredited, at least to some degree, by their "deviant" and common form of symbolic consumption. At stake in the process of stigmatization is the very identity of the individual fan, and their symbolic and emotional well-being. This paper reports on an empirical study of one particular group of fans-- Star Trek fans (or "Trekkies")--and explores the complex identity issues articulated by them as they "manage" their problematic public identity. Drawing upon interviews conducted with 18 Trekkies, the article describes how this stigmatic identity is organized within a disciplinary matrix that operates at a micro level through two key processes: humour and self-surveillance. In particular, we highlight their struggle with the dilemmas of exposing their private "fandom" in a public context, and the highly ambivalent manner in which they seek to escape stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]