Sense-making and actor networks: the non-corporeal actant and the making of an Air Canada history

Abstract

This paper contributes to critical organizational historiography and the development of ANTi-History through analysis of the history of a major event in the development of Air Canada. We contend that an important gap in ANTi-History is the explanation of the point where decisions occur (i.e. understandings of the micro-processes involved in enrollment, network establishment and the production of knowledges of the past). To deal with the lacuna, we draw on insights from Critical Sense-making in the performance of our historical analysis – undertaken through a seven-step process of moves. We identify not only the need to understand the role of sense-making in network formation and the production of knowledges of the past, but also the role of actants that transcend human and nonhuman actors in influencing behavior (i.e. non-corporeal actants).

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