Aesthetics, Morality and Power: Design as Espoused Freedom and Implicit Control

Abstract

This article is intended to contribute to debate on the arguments that are propounded both in support and in condemnation of new forms of workplace aesthetic. I draw upon experience in organizational intervention and on literature from the arenas of physical and social workplace design to support a multi-contextual debate on the new workplace aesthetic and on interpretations that are placed upon it within different contexts of study. While an essential tension of freedom and control is identified in the literature, I offer no conclusion in support or in condemnation of any particular viewpoint. Rather, I argue for a multi-perspective analysis of workplace aesthetic in order to surface meaning for different groups of actors within their own context of thinking/acting. From this, general theories for analysis of other situations may be derived rather than particular models or recipes for application.