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Social ontology and the modern corporation

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  • Jeroen Veldman
  • Hugh Willmott

Abstract

In an assessment of Lawson’s social ontological analysis of the modern corporation, we consider what is marginalized: the significance of the status and the effects of the separate legal entity (SLE). The SLE is conceived as a specific type of construct that is ascribed particular properties through its stabilization within and between different (legal and economic) discourses. By showing how the SLE, as a reified construct, is rendered meaningful, real and/or consequential, we illustrate how the ‘social ontology’ of the modern corporation is radically contingent and inescapably contested. Given that the social ontology of the corporation defies definitive specification, we regard the prospect of the completeness of its disclosure (e.g. by foregrounding a specific referent) as problematic. Indeed, any account of social ontology that foregrounds a specific referent is seen to obscure a political process in which the stabilization of the SLE rests on the contingent foregrounding of particular priorities. This leads us to reflect on the power-inflected social organization of knowledge generation. Key to the explication of social ontology, and with specific reference to the corporation, is not, as Lawson contends, the concept of ‘community’ but the inescapability of contestation within relations of power that translate ontological openness into specific but precarious forms of ontic closure.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeroen Veldman & Hugh Willmott, 2017. "Social ontology and the modern corporation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 1489-1504.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:41:y:2017:i:5:p:1489-1504.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bex043
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. John Armour & Simon Deakin & Suzanne J. Konzelmann, 2003. "Shareholder Primacy and the Trajectory of UK Corporate Governance," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 41(3), pages 531-555, September.
    2. John Armour & Simon Deakin & Suzanne J. Konzelmann, 2003. "Shareholder Primacy and the Trajectory of UK Corporate Governance," Working Papers wp266, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
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    Cited by:

    1. Veldman, Jeroen, 2019. "Inequality, Inc," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Phil Faulkner & Stephen Pratten & Jochen Runde, 2017. "Cambridge Social Ontology: Clarification, Development and Deployment," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 1265-1277.
    3. Xavier Hollandts & Bertrand Valiorgue, 2019. "La gouvernance de médiation comme réponse aux impasses conceptuelles et pratiques de la gouvernance actionnariale," Post-Print hal-03041045, HAL.
    4. Simon Deakin, 2017. "Tony Lawson’s Theory of the Corporation: Towards a Social Ontology of Law," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(5), pages 1505-1523.
    5. Veldman, Jeroen, 2018. "Inequality, Inc," MPRA Paper 86644, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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