Time-Space Patterns in Work and Organizing: Setting the Scene, Taking Stock and Moving Forward

In the face of an increasing variety of spatio-temporal patterns of work and organisations, we seek to draw attention to time and space in this issue. In our introduction, we argue that they have become constitutive of the ongoing transformations of work in its entanglements with social reproduction, and of the evolving nature of organisations themselves – practices, structures, and organisational cultures. After presenting the framework underpinning this special issue and providing an overview of the contributions it comprises – five articles, three invited contributions from leading international scholars and two book reviews – we propose our own analysis of four interrelated tensions that run through the contributions to the special issue. These tensions concern the autonomy–control dialectic, the ambivalent role of technologies, subjectivities and the reconfiguration of agency, and the work–life tensions that unfold across spatio-temporal arrangements. We highlight how each tension simultaneously shapes and is shaped by contemporary spatio-temporal patterns of work and organisation. Finally, we outline possible avenues for future research that may foster novel theoretical and methodological frameworks capable of better grasping the ongoing metamorphoses of work, organisation, space, and temporality, along with the key tensions that underpin them.