Re‐Eroticizing the Organization: An Exegesis and Critique

Abstract

This paper examines an important recent development in thinking on the role of sexuality and eroticism within organizations, namely Re‐eroticization theory. The paper contextualizes this development by contrasting it with modemist‐masculinist and modernist‐feminist discourses on eroticism and organizations prior to synthesizing the many disparate strands of Re‐eroticization theory. Re‐eroticization is then examined critically in terms of its theoretical assumptions and the nature of its emancipatory promise. In particular, it is argued that Re‐eroticization theory retains an unacknowledged essentialism which renders its emancipatory claims problematic, and is overly sanguine with respect to violent forms of eroticism.