Uses of the Past: History and Memory in Organizations and Organizing
Historical approaches to management and organization research have been flourishing in recent years, following decades when it was seen as marginal to the field (Kipping and Usdiken, 2014) The development has been characterized by plurality in both the conceptualization of organizations in historical time (Bucheli and Wadhwani, 2014) and in how history is researched (Rowlinson, Hassard, and Decker, 2014) One historical approach that has attracted the attention of both organization researchers (Rowlinson and Hassard, 1993; Ericson, 2006; Suddaby, et al, 2010; Foster, et al, 2011; Anteby and Molnar, 2013) and business historians (Hansen, 2006, 2007, 2012a; Mordhorst, 2008, 2014; Kroeze and Keulen, 2013) is what could be called "uses of the past" by managers, organizations, and industries. Such a perspective takes history as "constitutive" (Wadhwani and Bucheli, 2014) in shaping how actors define their own sense of self and action in time, and in emphasizing how their interpretation of the past shape their experience in the present and their expectations for the future (Kosseleck, 2004) Research of this type has examined how actors have interpreted the past to forge organizational identities (Gioia, et al, 2000; Hansen, 2007; Anteby and Molnar, 2013; Mordhorst, 2014) consolidate social memory (Rowlinson, et al 2010) set strategic direction (Suddaby, et al, 2010; Schultz and Hernes, 2013) understand entrepreneurial opportunities (Popp and Holt, 2013a, 2013b) redefine market categories (Khaire and Wadhwani, 2010) shape understandings of products (Hansen, 2006, 2010) and establish new industries (Kirsch, et al, 2014) It thus suggests the tremendous variety in how, why and with what consequences the past might be used in organizations and organizing. The emergence of "uses of the past" perspectives represents an important new direction in how history and historical reasoning is integrated into management and organization studies. Previous organizational research and theory, even when it took history seriously, typically understood an organization's history (Nelson and Winter, 1982) and the histories of industries or populations of firms (Hannan and Freeman, 1984) as "given" by their path through time. History was synonymous with the past, and thus understood as immutable, whether the goal of research was to identify a normative evolutionary process (Nelson and Winter, 1982) or a path dependent one (North, 1990) In contrast, the "uses of the past" approach emphasizes not only the malleability of interpretations of the past, but also of its relationship to how organizational actors experience the present and set expectations for the future. The past is thus understood as a reservoir for different uses. History and memory become fields where all actors are simultaneously users and producers of interpretations and of historical consciousness. And organizations are understood as arenas for this ongoing struggle