Social Poetics as Management Inquiry

The author’s position in this article is that we create our social realities, meaning, and selves in embodied and situated dialogue. Given the premise that language is metaphorical and sense making a multiply constructed, dynamic embodied practice, then what are the implications for research? The author suggests social poetics is one research practice that offers a way of exploring how, in the flow of our embodied dialogical activity, we relate to our surroundings and make sense of our experiences. Embracing a radically reflexive stance, social poetics elevates everyday, imaginative ways of talking, for example, metaphors, storytelling, and gestural statements. Using excerpts from research conversations, the author explores the practice of social poetics as a form of management inquiry.