Marlène Monnet Dupuy

How can organisations reconcile economic performance, environmental requirements and social responsibilities? What becomes of these ambitions when they are translated into day-to-day practices? These questions lie at the heart of my research into logistics and supply chain management, which focuses on the sometimes unexpected consequences of sustainability initiatives within supply chains (Carter, Kaufmann and Ketchen, 2020).

Far from eliminating organisational tensions, sustainability initiatives can give rise to new ones, as demonstrated by research into last-mile logistics, collaborative platforms and recycling chains: balancing logistical efficiency with the reduction of environmental impacts, creating social value whilst ensuring economic viability, or meeting the divergent expectations of different stakeholders (Monnet Dupuy and Moncef, 2021; Moncef and Monnet Dupuy, 2021).

Shifting the focus to the paradoxes of sustainability

The project being developed at Iméra is based on the assumption that gaining a better understanding of these paradoxes requires a shift in perspective: the subject of the research remains the same, but the ways in which it is explored are being renewed. Traditional management science methods enable the analysis of strategies, organisations and discourses; they do not directly address the way in which these tensions are embodied in everyday practices. It is this area that the project aims to investigate, by fostering a dialogue between management science and dance.

Dance as a research method

Here, dance is viewed as a complementary methodological tool for research. The aim is not to employ an artistic approach in the service of research, but to regard the body and movement as means of exploring the paradoxes of sustainability within organisations in a different way. The aim is to create an exploratory setting in which the body becomes a gateway to the sensory dimensions of work, which are partly beyond the reach of conventional forms of verbalisation.

A research-creation project throughout the residency

The residency provides an ideal setting for developing this approach, which lies at the intersection of management sciences, the arts and research-creation – understood as a means of generating knowledge through the creative process (Gosselin and Le Coguiec, 2006). This research will draw on several companies committed to corporate social responsibility initiatives and will utilise a range of methods: field observations, interviews with employees, managers and human resources managers, as well as workshops combining dance, music and discussion sessions.

These workshops will be designed as frameworks intended to bring out alternative forms of expression, verbalisation and reflection on working practices and situations. Stories, observations, written or visual works, and records of the creative process will be analysed collectively to gain a better understanding of how the paradoxes of sustainability are experienced and incorporated into work situations.