Audio-visual production and shortcomings of distribution in organisation studies

This article considers the relation of audio-visual media to research in organisation studies, a scholarly market of the cultural economy. Guided theoretically by affect, audio-visual media place emphasis on mental and physical sensations that most organisation studies research, whether objective or subjective, tends to overlook or only imply. Too often, underlying disciplinary assumptions impose controls that are incompatible with the transmission of affect. Now, it is the case that those who have accumulated cultural capital within the field privilege conventions already found in the logic of the printed word. At issue is the implication that the culture of print effectually suppresses experimentation with audio-visual media as an alternative form of presentation. To illustrate the problem, I draw on first-hand experience of efforts to establish the research contribution of a short film.