Organizing the (Sociomaterial) Economy: Ritual, agency, and economic models

Employing sociomateriality, communicative constitution of organization (CCO), critical discourse analysis (CDA), performativity, and ritual, this article offers a discursive explanation of the economy: that discourse organizes the economy. This process-oriented and relational explanation proposes discourse as an entry point for understanding and perhaps foreclosing financial crisis and austerity. An instance of ritual use in a US city's council meetings about municipalizing a power utility (turning the privately owned energy utility into a city-owned energy utility) is analyzed with CDA, revealing how ritual positioned the city council and the economic model in relation to grant economic models agency in shaping decision-making and producing economic effects. A blending of CCO literatures with literature on ritual is recommended, illustrating the striking similarity between the CCO concept of authoritative text and ritual, and suggesting that perhaps rituals are authoritative texts.