The visual and material dimensions of legitimacy : accounting and the search for socie-ties
Abstract
The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on legitimacy by investigating its material and visual dimensions. By drawing on studies on rhetoric as a means of composing visions of social order and on an historical analysis of accounts in three paradigmatic eras (Roman times, Renaissance and Modernity), it shows how symmetry in accounts constituted an aesthetic code which tied members of a community together in ‘socie-ties’. We investigate the rhetorical process of ratiocinatio and explore how the visual and material dimensions of accounts provided social actors with an opportunity to explore their positions and ties within a community. This process augmented social actors’ understanding of their current relations by reducing them to a series of entries into an account, thus allowing them to reflect on what it meant to be a legitimate member of a society.
Citation
Puyou , F-R & Quattrone , P 2018 , ' The visual and material dimensions of legitimacy : accounting and the search for socie-ties ' , Organization Studies , vol. 39 , no. 5-6 , pp. 721-746 . https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618765013
Publication
Organization Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0170-8406Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2018 The Author(s), SAGE Publications. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618765013
Description
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