Unlearning institutional habits: an arts-based perspective on organizational unlearning

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to report on findings and methodological approaches of the artistic project “Sites for Unlearning (Art Organization)” in collaboration with the Team at Casco at Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht/NL, through which processes of unlearning are tested against the backdrop of established institutional structures. This paper constitutes a transdisciplinary contribution to the discourse, exploring its relationship with organizational unlearning, organizational change and feminist, decolonial trajectories.Design/methodology/approachThis paper proposes a feminist, decolonial, arts-based approach to discuss “unlearning institutional habits” by means of the long-term project – Sites for Unlearning (Art Organization). This complements the organizational unlearning literature with an arts-based approach, which draws on alternative education and feminist and decolonial literature. This paper responds to the call of this special and introduces a new perspective to the discourse.FindingsThis paper gives insights into and elaborates on the findings of the artistic project “Site for Unlearning (Art Organization)” through which processes of unlearning are tested against the backdrop of institutional structures.Originality/valueThis methodology puts in evidence that there are two major areas of concern for those who desire to break established structures in contemporary life increasingly defined by economic, socio-political and ecological pressures – institution on the one hand and learning on the other; the artistic project Sites for Unlearning attempts to challenge both. It builds on the insights and energies developed in and around the studies on unlearning in the fields of alternative education and feminist and decolonial theory and connects them with organizational learning, knowledge management and theories of transformation (Andreotti, 2011; Spivak, 1993; Tlostanova and Mignolo, 2012).