If on a summer’s day a researcher: the implied author and the implied reader in writing differently

Abstract

You are scrolling through the results of your latest search for papers. You wade through the papers you’ve been planning to read for ages; papers you could put aside to read this summer; papers you say you’ve read but really haven’t; papers you’ve actually read … but don’t remember; when a paper catches your eye. You prepare to puzzle through the complex explanations of VERY IMPORTANT CONCEPTS and the (unfulfilled?) promise of a contribution to *the literature*. But as you start reading you are pleasantly surprised. The tone is almost jovial; the writing is fresh and accessible. But there seems to be an error; the paper is missing the discussion and conclusion. You try and track down the original paper but end up with a different one. You contact the journal and ask for a replacement, only to find yourself with a different paper again. Slowly, however, you are beginning to enjoy yourself. Each paper you read leads you on a different journey. A flurry of words, styles, genres, tones. And in all the papers is you: the reader, the writer, the text. * * * Inspired by If on a Winter’s Night a traveller by Italo Calvino this paper explores the intimate relationships between the reader, the writer, and the text. I interweave second person tales of a writer and a reader, trying to write a text across time and space, with reflections on the value of the concepts of the ‘implied author’ and ‘implied reader’ for writing differently in management and organisation studies. In particular, I give attention to an often overlooked, yet ever present, part of writing differently in organisation studies: the reader. I address the reader as someone who, like the writer, is actively produced through engagement with the text and the according political and aesthetic implications. Ultimately, I argue that it matters deeply how readers are positioned in texts and how the reader comes to understand themselves through the text for realising the potential of writing differently.