As emphasized in the original call for papers underlying this Research Forum, change is one of the most prominent features of contemporary society (Chirot 2012). For instance, it is now commonly understood that technological developments (including digitalization and the rise of social media) transform and accelerate the constitution of social relationships (which increasingly take place in “cyberspace”) and how work is carried out, measured, and monitored in organizations (e.g., telecommuting, online surveillance). Transformation also impacts the meaning of key referents in the domain of business—such as the classic notion of “organizational control,” which is increasingly framed through a range of different (and oftentimes quite contradictory) approaches (Brivot, Gendron, and Guénin 2017).
Yet these indications of society being continually on the move, being permeated with change, should not neglect the question of resistance and inertia. Change inevitably intertwines with processes that aim to reproduce current institutions and...
