D'utopismes en organisations: L'inhabituel comme ressource pour réviser les orthodoxies managériales

In response to the numerous crises that affect contemporary societies and organizations, many actors experiment with alternative modes of organizing, entrepreneuring or leading, in order to challenge the dominant social order and power relationships. In this paper, we contend that the roots of these approaches can be traced back to the history of social utopias. Firstly, we offer a historical review of the utopian concept in organizational theory. Then, we introduce the post-structuralist notion of heterotopia, to shed light on localized experiments creating or prefiguring alternatives in contemporary contexts. We discuss the implications of this framework for management studies, highlighting fruitful theoretical opportunities especially for the fields of leadership and organizational entrepreneurship.