The Affective Creation of Dissonance in Alternative Organizations: The case of a shared community garden

Abstract

Alternative organizations are committed to autonomy, democracy and solidarity in an ongoing search for freedom from prevailing socio-economic orders, with dissonance as a key process for challenging dominant norms and creating alternative rules. In our paper, we explore the essential dissonant role of affective dynamics in the interaction between embodied norms and organizational rules. Through an ethnographic study of a shared community garden, we show how the creation of affective bonds conforms embodiment through gardening activities. Intensive affective experiences create tensions in member interactions, prompting transitional reactions that demand settling responses from the organization. Our paper contributes to research on alternative organizations first by elaborating a set of concepts regarding affective dynamics as a means of recognizing and understanding the reproduction and creation of implicit norms. Second, we propose a specific representation of how the dissonance necessary for the revision of implicit norms is generated via affective dynamics. Finally, we highlight the interrelations between affective embodiment processes and organizational democracy, enriching the literature on alternative organizing by stressing how these shape supposedly rational procedures and dialogue in decision-making.