Global, transnational, national and "local" organizations and organizing: The case of space and place

Place and space are both material-grounded and socially constructed, and social relations are part of the production of space and place - with consequent implications for men, masculinities, organizations and organizing. Spatiality, along with geography, geopolitics and indeed temporality, is a growing focus in both critical studies on men and masculinities, and studies of organizations and organizing. This chapter considers organizations, organizing, men and masculinities, through a social-spatial lens: how men and masculinities in and around organizations and organizing are located within social spaces and places. More specifically, the primary focus is on how spaces and places figure in understanding the differential relations and mutual construction of men, masculinities, organizations and organizing, transnationally, that is, across localities and national contexts. Having said that, it is important from the outset to consider how the transnational, and indeed the global, also operate locally and with local specificities. The chapter begins by considering the macro-picture of global and transnational organizations and organizing, in terms of geographical, historical and contemporary changes, including growing organizational and spatial concentrations and inequalities. It continues with some implications of this transnational social-spatial lens on migration, nation and location, before concluding comments.