Addressing durability in collaborative organising: Event atmospheres and polyrhythmic affectivity

Bernhard Resch; David Rozas

doi:10.1177/00187267241229344

Addressing durability in collaborative organising: Event atmospheres and polyrhythmic affectivity

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Collaborative organising is known to burn like a rocket: it thrives on intense passion, relationality and creativity but quickly falls into pieces. This article explores the underestimated role of events and their affective atmospheres to sustain collaborative work. Drawing insights from two ethnographic field studies within an open-source software community and a network of impact entrepreneurs, we introduce the notion
of ‘polyrhythmic affectivity’ at the core of polycentric governance. It encapsulates how
frictional reverberances between three atmospherically experienced affective intensities – togetherness, dissonance and mutuality – are able to maintain emergent yet enduring order. We argue that the collective motivational force of collaborative organising, can be stabilised through a process of ‘affective commoning’ to sustain collaborative atmospheres as shared creative resources.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	59-90
Number of pages	32
Journal	Human Relations
Volume	78
Issue number	1
Early online date	20 Feb 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267241229344
Publication status	Published - Jan 2025

Funding

This article is dedicated to the memory of Silke Helfrich and Aleli Alcala, advocates for the promotion of the commons and cooperative practices. Their impactful work continues to inspire our exploration of sustainable, collaborative communities. We also thank Elena Mart\u00EDnez Vicente for her help editing the diagram. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was partially supported by the projects P2P Models (ERC-2017-STG, grant no.: 759207), DAOapplications (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, grant no.: PID2021-127956OB-I00), the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur F\u00F6rderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (P1SGP1_171941) and the University of Sydney Business School Collaboration Visit Scheme (2019). The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: This work was partially supported by the projects P2P Models (ERC-2017-STG, grant no.: 759207), DAOapplications (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, grant no.: PID2021-127956OB-I00), the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur F\u00F6rderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (P1SGP1_171941) and the University of Sydney Business School Collaboration Visit Scheme (2019).

Funders	Funder number
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung	P1SGP1_171941
University of Sydney
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación	PID2021-127956OB-I00

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abstract = "Collaborative organising is known to burn like a rocket: it thrives on intense passion, relationality and creativity but quickly falls into pieces. This article explores the underestimated role of events and their affective atmospheres to sustain collaborative work. Drawing insights from two ethnographic field studies within an open-source software community and a network of impact entrepreneurs, we introduce the notionof {\textquoteleft}polyrhythmic affectivity{\textquoteright} at the core of polycentric governance. It encapsulates howfrictional reverberances between three atmospherically experienced affective intensities – togetherness, dissonance and mutuality – are able to maintain emergent yet enduring order. We argue that the collective motivational force of collaborative organising, can be stabilised through a process of {\textquoteleft}affective commoning{\textquoteright} to sustain collaborative atmospheres as shared creative resources.",

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Addressing durability in collaborative organising: Event atmospheres and polyrhythmic affectivity

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