Materiality, identity and social positioning: The case of the Elbphilharmonie
type: CreativeWork
description: The papers in this dissertation are studies of totalities such as the NDR EO, the citizenry of Hamburg, the French fashion house Chanel, and the Elbphilharmonie concert hall itself. Each of these totalities is a component of larger totalities, such as the NDR EO being part of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) organization or the Elbphilharmonie concert hall being part of the object that is the larger Elbphilharmonie complex. All such totalities comprise individuals and (technological) objects. The theory enabled me to address the relationships between the totalities via the social positions they occupy, and the attendant social identities, system functions, rights and responsibilities. However, the PhD Viva and the examiner’s report made me aware that using social positioning theory (SPT)—an established theory—was unsuitable to be used in the first paper in this dissertation, because my methodology was guided by a grounded theory building approach and I have accordingly adapted and largely rewritten this paper over the last six months. The paper responds to Watkiss and Glynn’s (2016) call for empirical work on how differing forms of forms of materiality might affect organizational identity and takes into account that organizational identity change needs to be studied in more contexts with a focus on how it changes (Gioia et al., 2013). I use the case of the NDR orchestra’s relocation to the Elbphilharmonie to explore how moving into a new building may trigger organizational identity change. Various aspects of the two organizational identity pillars of “who we are” and “what we do” are explored, focusing specifically on how a relocation leads to the need to redetermine who the organization is and what is does. I find that the relocation triggered a new set of identity dynamics between the pillars that cause mismatches and introduce “where we are” as a third pillar for organizational identity. The organization uses two forms of identity work to address the symbolic and…
abstract: The papers in this dissertation are studies of totalities such as the NDR EO, the citizenry of Hamburg, the French fashion house Chanel, and the Elbphilharmonie concert hall itself. Each of these totalities is a component of larger totalities, such as the NDR EO being part of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) organization or the Elbphilharmonie concert hall being part of the object that is the larger Elbphilharmonie complex. All such totalities comprise individuals and (technological) objects. The theory enabled me to address the relationships between the totalities via the social positions they occupy, and the attendant social identities, system functions, rights and responsibilities. However, the PhD Viva and the examiner’s report made me aware that using social positioning theory (SPT)—an established theory—was unsuitable to be used in the first paper in this dissertation, because my methodology was guided by a grounded theory building approach and I have accordingly adapted and largely rewritten this paper over the last six months. The paper responds to Watkiss and Glynn’s (2016) call for empirical work on how differing forms of forms of materiality might affect organizational identity and takes into account that organizational identity change needs to be studied in more contexts with a focus on how it changes (Gioia et al., 2013). I use the case of the NDR orchestra’s relocation to the Elbphilharmonie to explore how moving into a new building may trigger organizational identity change. Various aspects of the two organizational identity pillars of “who we are” and “what we do” are explored, focusing specifically on how a relocation leads to the need to redetermine who the organization is and what is does. I find that the relocation triggered a new set of identity dynamics between the pillars that cause mismatches and introduce “where we are” as a third pillar for organizational identity. The organization uses two forms of identity work to address the symbolic and…
author: Heuer, Tobias
language: eng
keywords: Materiality, System Function, Identity, Organizational Identity, City Identity, Strategic Positioning, Social Positions, Elbphilharmonie, Architecture, Orchestra, Fashion
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/722eae52-d31b-40a7-9d76-2b5af0260433/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2021-07-01
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:13Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.74320