Jenny Lantz is Assistant Professor at the Center for Management and Organization at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE). She is particularly interested in organizations in the cultural industries, characterized by competing logics. Ongoing research projects include a study of the financialization of fashion companies (including a substudy of trend companies), the construction of visitors in exhibition organizations, and the notion of quality and its relation to power. Also, she has conducted several leadership studies, particularly drawing on organization and gender theory. She received her Ph.D. from SSE in 2005. Taste at Work: Taste and Organization in the Field of Cultural Production is her doctoral thesis. She teaches courses in Organization and Management at the SSE and is currently Program Director of Executive MBA at IFL Executive Education at SSE. In 1998 and 1999 she was a research fellow at the Council of Women World Leaders at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Ongoing research projects:
Taste and Organization
Organizations in the cultural industries can be characterized by their two competing logics: the economic logic – they seek economic profit – and the cultural logic – they strive for artistic quality. The latter implies that organizational members frequently make artistic judgments in their work. In other words, organizational members in this type of organizations relate to ”taste” in their work. This project is an attempt to understand an organization in the cultural industries and the intersection of these two logics through the notion of ”taste”.
What are the constructions of taste in organizations in the field of cultural production? How, and for what purposes, is taste used in organizations in the field of cultural production? How do constructions of gender relate to constructions and uses of taste in an organization in the field of cultural production?
Related publications:
- Lantz, J. (2005). Taste at Work. On Taste and Organization in the Field of Cultural Production. Stockholm, Arvinius.
- Lantz, J. ”Taste at work: taste management in organizations in the cultural production field”, Is Another World Possible? Sociological perspectives on contemporary politics, the American Sociological Association's 102nd Annual Meeting on August 11-14, 2007, in New York City.
- Lantz, J. ”Talk of taste: exploring conceptions of taste in a cultural producing organization”, New Trends in the Sociology of the Arts, Joint Interim Meeting Sociology of Art Research Network of the ESA & Sociology of Art Research Committee (RC 37) of ISA, Paris 22-26 april 2003.
- Lantz, J., “Exploring the significance of taste in the organizational setting: A collaborative visual ethnographic study”, Conference on Ethnographic Organizational Studies, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, 19-21 september 2002.
- Lantz, J., “Exploring Structures of Taste in Organizations”, 5th conference of the European Sociological Association, Helsingfors 2001.
Quality in cultural production
Based on empirical studies in the field of cultural production various conceptions and uses of quality are analyzed. How does quality relate to power? How is quality gendered? How is quality used in organizations in the field of cultural production?
Related publications:
- Lantz, J. (2007). Kvalitetsbedömning i filmföretag. Den omätbara kvaliteten. Strannegård, L. (red.). Stockholm, Norstedts Akademiska Förlag.
- Lantz, Jenny (2006) Om kvalitet – Synen på kvalitetsbegreppet inom filmbranschen. Stockholm, Wift.
Perceptions of visitors in exhibition organizations
Focusing on exhibition development processes, this project aims to explore and theorize the constructions of the visitors/audience/users of exhibitions among the exhibition development team and the affiliated institution. What are the conceptions of the visitors? How can they be understood? What are their consequences? Are these institutions/organizations reflexive, i.e., do they reflect on their position in their field?
Other publications
- Lantz, J. (2007). Gendered Textbook Filmmakers. Aesthetic Leadership: Managing Fields of Flow in Art and Business. Guillet de Monthoux, P., C. Gustafsson, and S.-E. Sjöstrand (red.). Palgrave.
- Lantz, J. (2006). ”The Making of ’Men at Kastrup’.” Men and Masculinities 8: 518-524.
- Gillberg, N. and Lantz, J. ”Men at Kastrup: a study of the reproduction of gender inequality at an airport”. Gender and Front Line Service Work. Gender, Work and Organization Special Issue and ESRC Seminar Day, 28 januari 2004, Keele University.
- Gillberg, N. and Lantz, J. (2006). Kön i scenkonstens organisationer. Plats på scen. SOU 2006: 42. Stockholm, Fritzes.
Films
- Gillberg, N. and Lantz, J. (2003). Men at Kastrup. DVD. J K Lantz Kunskap & Singularis.
- Höök, P, J. Lantz and A. Wahl (2008, in production). “Minnesfilm” (working title).