After organization, apocalypse

Alf Rehn, Royal Institute of Technology

What happens after organization? Theorizations of organizing have normally focused on cases where order either is or already has been established, leaving the notion of disorder largely undertheorized. Consequently, this paper will attempt to outline a theory for the time after organization, i.e. a theory of the post-apocalyptic. Instead of modeling chaos, the paper will discuss four different forms of apocalypse – social collapse, man-made apocalypse, xenocalypse and the Apocalypse itself – in order to discuss the different forms of disorder they represent.

As an example: A version of a xenocalypse is a necropalypse, which occurs when the dead have risen in significant enough numbers so that zombies have in fact taken over the world. This specific form of disorder represents the social order of the living being disturbed and overthrown by the aorganized hordes of the living dead. A theorization of this requires to think through the social properties of inevitable decay (both social and organic), and the subsequent end of organizational man.

Yet, apocalypose is also tied to ascension, and the paper will discuss the possibility of an altogether novel form of organization, and the relation between organization, endtimes and the time after time.