ABSTRACT
Robert Cooper’s work has made an important and sustained contribution to what might be termed the ‘reflexivization’ of social and organization studies. Substantively, his analyses extend from the problematization of key concepts, such as alienation (Cooper, 1983b), through post-structuralist analyses of organization and technology (e.g. Cooper, 1990, 1992, 1993) to an exploration of the relevance of postmodern discourse, and especially the writings of Jacques Derrida, for organization studies (Cooper and Burrell, 1988; Cooper, 1989a). These writings have consistently provoked reflection upon what is assumed to be ‘obvious’ or ‘natural’ but which, when subjected to critical scrutiny, turns out to be arbitrary and problematical.2 In turn, this opens up a space for reflection upon how what, through a process of reflection, is now viewed as arbitrary has been rendered authoritative or taken for granted; and, relatedly, how a process of personal and social transformation might be promoted and embraced that is informed by post-structuralist thinking, so that social change moves beyond replacing one arbitrary authority (for example, theism, religion) with another (humanism, science).
