Managing the Paradoxes of Place to Foster Regeneration

Abstract

Organizations face and contribute to mounting social problems and environmental degradation. Regenerative organizations seek to reverse this damage, emphasizing how to help local places flourish. Drawing on a six-year inductive study of one such regenerative organization, we derive an empirically grounded model which argues that regeneration depends on effectively managing place-based tensions paradoxically. Shorefast built social enterprises aimed at redeveloping the cultural and economic resilience of Fogo Island, Canada, a community devastated by the collapse of the North Atlantic cod fishery. They triggered place-based tensions and managed them paradoxically by creating conditions for meaningful exchange and by taking a patient approach. Together, these efforts facilitated both the discovery of place-based opportunities and the regeneration of place. Our model challenges organizational researchers studying place to move beyond considering place-based tensions as conflicts and, instead, to study their paradoxical nature and management. To paradox research, we contribute insight into paradoxes of place.