Making Sense Bringing Everyday Life at Work

Inspired by contemporary work life studies on making sense at work this paper elaborates on using Critical Utopian Action Research as methodology for enabling shared learning spaces in which citizens and professionals can conjoin around discussions of deeper human aspirations enabled through synergies between civil engagement and organisational capabilities. The paper reports on experiences with enabling free spaces in the contexts of everyday life, where broader human concerns and aspirations can be addressed, as in the context of work life, where organisational responses on these orientations can be developed. On this basis the paper highlights how the methodology invites for broader emancipatory considerations addressing aspirations on how we want to live; how these orientations transcends organisational and disciplinary boundaries; and how they calls for trans-disciplinary and –organisational thinking. Building on these experiences the paper elaborates on transforming these emancipatory orientations into new organisational forms.