Toward an ANTi-microhistory approach in management and organization studies : revisiting the socio-past of Trans Canada Airlines

Abstract

In this dissertation I explore the potential of creative synthesis within the debate of method in management and organizational history by developing an approach that I call <i>ANTi Microhistory</i>. It is an approach that draws on three literatures: (1) amodern historiography, (2) ANTi-History and, (3) microhistory. Insights from each of these collectives, especially their opportunities for theoretical dialogue, are brought together to constitute a nascent resolution vis à-vis ANTi-Microhistory. The formation of this critical approach of conducting historically informed scholarship in management and organizational theorizing synthesizes key points in the field. First, the nearly two-decade intellectual project known as ‘the historic turn’ in management and organization studies has indeed materialized but unnecessarily creates tension between the groundswell of historical scholarship being conducted and an emergent method problematic that results in fragmentation of ‘doing history.’ Second, ANTi-History has injected new understandings of history as the social effect of interest-driven socio-politics but misses analytical value of the individual in history ‘from below.’ Third, seeing the performativity of history in small units (e.g., the individual, community, or event), microhistory holds potential for centring stories of the past in ‘in-between’ spaces – grey areas between institutions and the people connected with them – which deserves a closer look in management and organization studies. The empirical application and demonstration of this approach is explored using materials related to the history of Trans Canada Airlines. In particular, the socio-politics of one individual – Jean Chrétien – during a period of change within the airline’s history is unravelled to pluralize the account. The contribution of this research is to: build on the potential of an ANTi Microhistory approach which narrows the research frame; reassert the individual in historical research as a unit of analysis; and a crafting of history that converges complementary approaches while maintaining a practice of criticality.