Naturally occurring conversations, especially those occurring where there is controversy—a not uncommon project experience—provide excellent data. This article commences with a discussion of a controversy over whether an excavation into clay was normal. This leads into a discussion of contracts, which broadens to include their role as indexical items and objects of autopoiesis. The article concludes with some practical advice on how to research projects through controversies that arise from interpretation of their documentation.
AméricoB.CleggS. R.TuretaS. (2022). Qualitative management research in context: Data collection, interpretation and. narrative. Routledge.
2.
ArcherM. (1996). Social integration and system integration: Developing the distinction.Sociology, 30(4), 679–699.
3.
BhaskarR. (1975). A realist theory of science. Leeds Books.
4.
ChanlatJ-F. (2024) Homo anthropologicus: A humanistic management perspective. Elgar.
5.
ChomskyN. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. MIT Press.
6.
CleggS. R. (1975). Power, rule and domination: A critical and empirical understanding of power in sociological theory and organizational life. Routledge and Kegan Paul, International Library of Sociology. Republished in 2013 as Clegg, S. R. (2013 reprint), Power, rule and domination: A critical and empirical understanding of power in sociological theory and organizational life. Routledge Library Editions: Organization: Theory & Behaviour Volume 6.
7.
CleggS. R. (1987). The language of power and the power of language. Organization Studies, 8(1), 61–70.
8.
CleggS. R. (2019). Governmentality. Project Management Journal, 50(3) 1–4.
9.
CleggS. R. (2023). Frameworks of power (2nd ed.). Sage.
10.
CleggS. R. (2025). Afterword: A fundamental problem with projects or project management? In IkaL. A.PintoJ. K. (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of project behaviour. Cambridge University Press.
11.
CleggS. R.KreinerK. (2014). Fixing concrete: Inquiries, responsibility, power and innovation. Construction Management & Economics, 32(3), 262–278.
12.
CleggS. R.NinanJ. (2023). Unravelling governmentality in project ecologies. Project Leadership and Society, 100099.
13.
CleggS. R.NinanJ. (2024a). Governmentality for positive project management. In MullerR.SankaranS.DrouinN. (Eds.), Research handbook on the governance of projects (pp. 78–86). Elgar.
14.
CleggS. R.NinanJ. (2024b). Foucault’s governmentality and the issue of project governance. In WinchG. M.BrunetM.CaoD. (Eds.), Research handbook on complex project organizing (pp. 99–106). Elgar.
15.
CleggS. R.PitsisT.Rura-PolleyT.MarosszekyM. (2002). Governmentality matters: Designing an alliance culture of inter-organizational collaboration for managing projects. Organization Studies, 23(3), 317–337.
16.
CleggS. R.PollackJ. (2025). Doing exemplary research revisited. Elgar.
17.
CohenM. D.MarchJ. G.OlsenJ. P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 1–25.
18.
CoorenF.KuhnT.CornelissenJ. P.ClarkT. (2011). Communication, organizing and organization: An overview and introduction to the special issue. Organization Studies, 32(9), 1149–1170.
19.
CunhaM. P. de.CleggS. R.MendonçaS. (2010). On serendipity and organizing. European Management Journal, 28(5), 319–331.
20.
CunhaM. P. e.NevesP.CleggS. R.RegoA. (2016). Tales of the unexpected: Discussing improvisational learning, Management Learning, 46(5), 511–529.
21.
DilleT.SoderlundJ.CleggS. R. (2018). Temporal conditioning and institutional pluralism: Exploring the nature and dynamics of inter-institutional temporary organizations. International Journal of Project Management, 36(5), 673–686.
22.
D’IribaneP. (2003). The logics of honor: National traditions and corporate management. Welcome Rain Publishers.
23.
DurkheimE. (1975 [1886]). La science sociale selon De Greef. In KaradyV. (Ed.), Éléments d’une théorie sociale (pp. 37–43). Les Editions de Minuit.
24.
FilmerP.PhillipsonM.SilvermanD.WalshD. (1972). New directions in sociological theory. Collier-Macmillan.
25.
FlyvbjergB.GardenerD. (2023). How big things get done. Macmillan.
26.
FoucaultM. (1977). Discipline and punish. Penguin.
27.
GaimM.CleggS.CunhaM. P. E. (2022). In praise of paradox persistence: Evidence from the Sydney Opera House Project. Project Management Journal, 53(4), 397–415.
28.
GarfinkelH. (1963). A conception of, and experiments with, ‘trust’ as a condition of stable concerted actions. In HarveyO. J. (Ed.), Motivation and social interaction (pp. 187–238). Ronald Press.
29.
GarfinkelH. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Prentice Hall.
30.
GeraldiJ.SöderlundJ. (2018). Project studies: What it is, where it is going. International Journal of Project Management, 36(1), 55–70.
31.
GlaserB.StraussA. (1967). Discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
32.
GodelierM. (1970). The structural balance of the kinship systems of some primitive peoples. In LaneM. (Ed.), Structuralism: A reader (pp. 359–366). Jonathan Cape.
33.
GouldnerA. (1954). Patterns of industrial bureaucracy. The Free Press.
34.
HeritageJ. (1984), Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Polity Press.
35.
HunterJ. F. M. (1971). Wittgenstein on meaning and use. In KlemkeE. D. (Ed.), Essays on Wittgenstein (pp. 273–297). University of Illinois Press.
36.
KreinerK. (2020). Conflicting notions of a project: The battle between Albert O. Hirschman and Bent Flyvbjerg. Project Management Journal, 51(4), 400–410.
37.
LocatelliG.IkaL.DrouinN.MüllerR.HuemannM.SöderlundJ.GeraldiJ.CleggS. (2023). A manifesto for project management research. European Management Review, 20(1), 3–17.
38.
LockwoodD. (1964). Social integration and system integration. In ZollschanG. K.HirschW. (Eds.), Explorations in social change (pp. 244–257). Routledge & Kegan Paul.
39.
LuhmannN. (1995). Social systems. Stanford University Press.
40.
LuhmannN. (2012). Theory of society. Stanford University Press.
41.
LuhmannN. (2017). Organization and decision. Cambridge University Press.
42.
MaturanaH. R.VarelaF. J. (1991). Autopoiesis and cognition: The realization of the living. Springer Science & Business Media.
43.
MillsC. W. (1959). The sociological imagination. Oxford University Press.
44.
MorujãoC. (2023). Subjective meanings and normative values in Alfred Schutz’s philosophy of human action. Phenomenology and Mind, (24), 130–139.
45.
PitsisT.CleggS. R.MarosszekyM.Rura-PolleyT. (2003). Constructing the Olympic dream: Managing innovation through the future perfect. Organization Science, 14(5), 574–590.
46.
RawlsA. W. (2011). Wittgenstein, Durkheim, Garfinkel and Winch: Constitutive orders of sensemaking. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 41(4), 396–418.
47.
RoyO. (2024). The crisis of culture: Identity politics and the empire of norms. Hurst.
48.
SacksH. (1972). An initial investigation of the usability of conversational data for doing sociology. In. SudnowD. (Ed.), Studies in social interaction (pp. 31–74). Free Press.
49.
SchützA. (1967). The phenomenology of the social world. Northwestern University Press.
SimmelG. (1971). On individuality and social forms. LevineD. (Ed). University of Chicago Press.
52.
TuretaC.AméricoB. L.CleggS. (2021). Controversies as method for ANTi-history: An inquiry into public administration practices. Organization, 28(6), 1018–1035.
53.
WeberM. (1948). Max Weber: The theory of social and economic organization. Translated and edited by A. M. Henderson & T. Parsons, with an introduction by Talcott Parsons. Oxford University Press.
54.
WeberM. (1978). Economy and society: An introduction to interpretive sociology, G. Roth & C. Wittich (editors and translation). University of California Press.
55.
WeickK. E. (1969). The social psychology of organizing. Addison-Wesley.
56.
WeickK. E., (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. Sage.
57.
WhiteheadA. N. (1985). Science and the modern world. Free Press.
58.
WhyteJ.ComiA.MoscaL. (2022). Making futures that matter: Future making, online working and organizing remotely. Organization Theory, 3(1), 26317877211069138.
59.
WhyteJ.DaviesA. (2021). Reframing systems integration: A process perspective on projects. Project Management Journal, 52(3), 237–249.
60.
WhyteJ.MotteeL. (2022). Projects as interventions. International Journal of Project Management, 40(8), 934–940.
61.
WittgensteinL. (1953). Philosophical investigations (Anscombe, G. E. M., Translation). Blackwell.
62.
WittgensteinL. (1969). The blue and the brown books: Preliminary studies for the ‘philosophical investigations. Blackwell.
