The knowing body as a floating body. Issue 5 (November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Valtonen, Anu; Meriläinen, Susan; Laine, Pikka-Maaria; Salmela-Leppänen, Tarja
• Is Part Of: Management learning. Volume 48:Issue 5(2017:Nov.)
• Page Start: 520
• Page End: 534
• Publication Date: 2017-11
• Subjects: Academia -- auto-ethnography -- bodily knowing -- practice-based knowing -- sleeping; Industrial management -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Executives -- Training of -- Periodicals; Organizational learning -- Periodicals; Knowledge management -- Periodicals; 302.35
• DOI: 10.1177/1350507617706833
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-7307

Abstract

This article enriches practice-based studies on bodily knowing by conceptualizing the knowing body as a floating body. This concept accords epistemic value to two forms of bodily existence – waking and sleeping – that are considered to be intertwined and floating. Based on an auto-ethnographic study conducted in Finnish academia, we propose three different sensorial flows that the knowing body engages in when participating in organizational practices: sensory release, within-corporeality and sensory entanglement in dreams. These forms highlight the inconstant and uncertain nature of embodied knowing, suggesting a novel onto-epistemological stance in which the knowing body is thought of as a floating body that is never still. The study also has implications for management education.