This thesis explores the role of new Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in political organisation. It explores the use of ICTs by singleissue groups - the emergence of which has become a salient feature of contemporary political activity. There has been considerable interest amongst politicians, activists, commentators and social scientists in the contribution of ICT (eg. social media) to democracy and the renewal of political life. Optimistic accounts are especially evident around 'the Arab Spring', though subsequent experiences have called into question the prevalent technological utopianism of the time. Despite this, we are now building a complete picture of how ICT can contribute to the political organisation. In particular, the significance of new media and technology for single issue groups has not yet been explored in developing countries context. This thesis, therefore, examines the characteristics of single issue groups and how social activists appropriated new media tools and its consequences for political organisation in a developing country: India. A qualitative study was undertaken to focus on two detailed case studies: India Against Corruption (IAC) and the Pink Chaddi campaign. IAC was the traditional activist organisation that used new media to its advantage whereas Pink Chaddi was the pioneering example of online social activism in the India. Forty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of actors involved to understand how single-issue groups appropriated technology and how new practices have emerge from this appropriation. Drawing upon the Social Shaping of Technology perspective (Williams & Edge, 1996) and its extension to Social Learning (Sørensen, 1996), the thesis refutes prevalent deterministic accounts (whether utopian or dystopian) of the impact of new technologies on political organisations. Instead, a detailed account is rendered of the adoption of various communication media and their utilisation in the particular practices and activities of the single-issue groups selected. The results demonstrate that the particular setting shapes the appropriation of new media and the development of new organisation practices: the skills resources and strategies of the local players involved as well as the availability and affordances of technology. The thesis introduces the concept of 'creative configuration' - to capture the innovative and adaptive process by which the actors involved explored the applicability of general purpose technology infrastructure and tools, assisted by forms of local expertise available to hand, to support organisational objectives. The research examines the applicability of the theory of temporary organisation (Lundin & Söderholm, 1995) to the activities of single-issue groups. It suggests an extension of this theory, highlighting how 'technology' acts as a catalyst to sustain temporary organisations such as single-issue groups. Further, a framework for sustainable local innovations is proposed to explore lessons for organisations in exploiting technologies sustainably and more efficiently.

<p> </p><p>In an organisation, escalation of commitment represents behaviour of decision makers who become committed to failing courses of action. This behaviour usually derives from the decision makers’ reluctance to acknowledge their failed action in the initial allotment of time and resources, and thus taking actions to manifest their prior decision were correct and they will be achieving the planned goal.</p><p> </p><p>In a single day of 1996 during a climbing expedition destined to summit Mt Everest, eight people lost their lives, including the climbing team leaders, in part due to the decision made that led to the teams to engage in escalation behaviour.  The climbing teams in the 1996 Mt Everest expedition serve as examples of temporary organisations in an extreme setting. The purpose of the research is to explore insights on the aspects promoting escalation on the Mt Everest tragedy and shed some light into how escalation manifests in temporary organisations. The factors that might be found will be applicable only to this particular case; nevertheless they might contribute on the overall development of how escalation comes about in temporary organisations. The research question of this study is how aspects promoting escalation where present in the 1996 Mt. Everest expedition?</p><p> </p><p>For many years different theories attempted to explain the factors that promote escalation behaviour. The most important theories were combined together into a theoretical framework developed by Staw and Ross (1987a), which contains four major determinants of commitment in escalation: project, psychological, social and organisational. This framework is applied in this qualitative study based on the 1996 Mt Everest case. The study was executed through the analysis of the firsthand accounts of the survivors and observers present on the mountain that year as well as mass media outputs, the framework of escalation was used as an assistance tool for making sense of the findings the research may produce.</p><p> </p><p>The results of the study managed to place the line of events in the determinants framework and identified all four types of determinants of commitment taking place through the progress of the expedition. A new organisational determinant of commitment was found (<em>pursuit of enterprise growth</em>) which yielded significant practical implications and might also lead the way for future research on escalation of commitment in temporary organisations.</p>

In an organisation, escalation of commitment represents behaviour of decision makers who become committed to failing courses of action. This behaviour usually derives from the decision makers’ reluctance to acknowledge their failed action in the initial allotment of time and resources, and thus taking actions to manifest their prior decision were correct and they will be achieving the planned goal.   In a single day of 1996 during a climbing expedition destined to summit Mt Everest, eight people lost their lives, including the climbing team leaders, in part due to the decision made that led to the teams to engage in escalation behaviour.  The climbing teams in the 1996 Mt Everest expedition serve as examples of temporary organisations in an extreme setting. The purpose of the research is to explore insights on the aspects promoting escalation on the Mt Everest tragedy and shed some light into how escalation manifests in temporary organisations. The factors that might be found will be applicable only to this particular case; nevertheless they might contribute on the overall development of how escalation comes about in temporary organisations. The research question of this study is how aspects promoting escalation where present in the 1996 Mt. Everest expedition?   For many years different theories attempted to explain the factors that promote escalation behaviour. The most important theories were combined together into a theoretical framework developed by Staw and Ross (1987a), which contains four major determinants of commitment in escalation: project, psychological, social and organisational. This framework is applied in this qualitative study based on the 1996 Mt Everest case. The study was executed through the analysis of the firsthand accounts of the survivors and observers present on the mountain that year as well as mass media outputs, the framework of escalation was used as an assistance tool for making sense of the findings the research may produce.   The results of the study managed to place the line of events in the determinants framework and identified all four types of determinants of commitment taking place through the progress of the expedition. A new organisational determinant of commitment was found (pursuit of enterprise growth) which yielded significant practical implications and might also lead the way for future research on escalation of commitment in temporary organisations.

Festivals and other events are often seen as important means for contributing to the positive image of a place and for increasing visitor numbers, for involving the local community and for creating job opportunities. Organising an event involves the temporary coordination of performers, an audience, volunteers, sponsors and other partners, and in the end an event is simultaneously produced and consumed. When the music has stopped or the actors have come off stage, when the audience has gone home and the premises have been cleared of rubbish, there might be few signs of an event having ever taken place. However, the value of an event is seen to extend beyond its immediate boundaries. This dissertation looks at event organising from a resources perspective. Which resources are engaged, and how do they contribute? Key questions that emerge concern the event’s connection to the place where it is held, how different actors are included or excluded and finally how the aesthetic aspects of an event attract resources. The study draws on observations of five cultural events and interviews with artistic directors, managers and collaboration partners. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2008</p>

This thesis considers the relationship between practices, communities and continuity in intermittent organisational arrangements. Cultural festivals are argued to offer one such particularly rich and nuanced research context; within this study their potential to transcend intermittent enactment emerged as a significant avenue of enquiry. The engagement of organisation studies with theories of practice has produced a rich practice-based corpus, diverse in both theoretical concerns and empirical approaches to the study of practice. Nevertheless, continuity presents an, as yet, under-theorised aspect of this field. Thus, the central questions of this thesis concern: the practices that underpin the enactment of festivals; the themes emerging from these practices for further consideration; and relationships between festivals and the wider context within which they are enacted. These issues were explored empirically through a qualitative study of the enactment of a community-centred film festival. Following from the adoption of a ‘practice-lens approach', this study yielded forty-eight practices, through which to explore five themes emerging from analysis: Safeguarding, Legitimising, Gatekeeping, Connecting and Negotiating Boundaries. This study revealed an aspect of the wider field of practice that has not yet been fully examined by practice-based studies: the cementing or anchoring mechanisms that contribute to temporal continuity in intermittent, temporary or project-based organisations. The findings of this thesis suggest a processual model, which collectively reinforces an organisational memory that survives periods of latency and facilitates the re-emergence of practice, thus potentially enabling organisations to endure across intermittent enactment and, ultimately, transcend temporality and ephemerality. The themes examined and insights offered in this thesis seek to contribute to: practice-based studies and film-festival studies; forging a new path linking these two disciplines; and generating both theoretical and practical insights of interest to festival organisers and stakeholders of project-based, temporary or intermittent organisational arrangements.