Copenhagen Business School: CBS Open Journals

Camilla Boelsgaard Lund

Mette Bechmann

Jens Dam

Anna Slyngborg

Inge Kongsgaard

REVY 2 SOMMER 2025 18
Synlighed på FFU- 
bibliotekerne
Vi har et godt samarbejde med mange 
undervisere, deltager selv i en del undervis-
ning og spreder budskabet om biblioteket 
på den måde. Hvert institut på CBS har en 
kontaktbibliotekar tilknyttet, som promoverer 
biblioteket, blandt andet med et roadshow, der 
viser de services, vi leverer.
Vi taler også med studieadministrationens 
kommunikationsfolk om for eksempel studie-
startskampagner, som fylder ret meget hvert 
år og bruger CBS’ design og tvister studie-
startsbudskaberne med en biblioteksvinkel.
Jens Dam, Syddansk Universitets- 
bibliotek
Ved Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek 
benytter vi os både af traditionelle markeds-
føringsmetoder som plakater, roll-ups, flyers, 
og annoncering på skærme rundt omkring 
på campus og af forskellige digitale formid-
lingsplatforme. Men også digitale platforme, 
som SDU stiller til rådighed, for at nå ud til de 
forskellige målgrupper. Vores offentlige hjem-
meside, sdu.dk/bibliotek, er en central kanal, 
hvor offentligheden kan finde information om 
bibliotekets tilbud, men SDUnet (intranet) og 
MitSDU (studenter-portal) er specifikt rettet 
mod henholdsvis SDU-ansatte og studerende. 
Sociale medier spiller også en vigtig rolle.
Universitetsbiblioteket arrangerer og del-
tager i en række events, workshops og kurser, 
der introducerer studerende til bibliotekets 
faciliteter og services. Derudover tilbyder 
biblioteket specialiserede kurser og vejledning, 
som f.eks. Book en Bibliotekar-ordningen, 
hvor brugerne kan få individuel hjælp.
Et nyere initiativ vi forsøger at udbrede, er 
vores Kahoot og Happy Library hour, hvor 
medarbejdere fra biblioteket ruller afsted med 
en ’bananbåd’ og holder pop-up events ude på 
de enkelte fakulteter.
Vi følger op på Vinterinternatets 
tema om ’synlighed’ og spørger, hvad 
FFU-bibliotekerne gør for at synlig- 
gøre biblioteket og gøre brugerne op-
mærksomme på bibliotekets services
Camilla Boelsgaard Lund og  
Mette Bechmann, CBS Library
Vi er til stede på hjemmesiden, på intranet 
for studerende og ansatte samt på Facebook 
og Instagram, hvor det sidste har bedst række-
vidde. Vi deler opslag med CBS’ kommunikati-
onsfolk, som deler videre.
I en del år har vi skrevet nyhedsbreve til 
forskere, og der udkommer ca. seks om året. 
Her har vi fokus på services eller ressourcer, vi 
har anskaffet. Desuden viser en storskærm på 
campus vores events, som f.eks. referencebar 
og talks i CBS Library Forum.
Vi har kurser for både studerende og 
ansatte. Ansatte får en email hver gang, der 
er kursus, så det er en slags email-marketing. 
Studerende ser vores kurser på deres intranet 
og opslag på skærme. Derudover afholder 
vi flere gange om året CBS Library Forum 
events, hvor en eller flere forskere kommer 
forbi biblioteket og fortæller om deres forsk-
ning, og som noget nyt får vi den centrale 
kommunikationsafdeling til at dele vores 
events på CBS’ LinkedIn-profil.
Hvert år stiller vi os uden for biblioteket og 
hjælper med henvisninger og litteraturlister 
op til den store afleveringsdag for bachelorer 
og kandidater. I år prøvede vi at lave en pop-
up Search & Coffee, hvor vi flyttede os til en 
anden del af biblioteket, for at blive synlige for 
de studerende der sidder og skriver opgave i 
biblioteket, men ikke kommer ned og snakker 
med os i skranken. Vi gav kaffe og hjalp med 
litteratursøgning.
REVY 2 SOMMER 2025 19
Biblioteket indgår i mange eksterne sam-
arbejder og projekter, der bidrager til synlig-
heden. Dette inkluderer partnerskaber med 
lokale gymnasier, forskningsinstitutioner, og 
regionale kulturinstitutioner. Projekter som 
Citizen Science og Mediacamp for gymnasier 
er eksempler på initiativer, der både fremmer 
bibliotekets synlighed og bidrager til samfund-
sengagement.  
Ved biblioteket inddrager vi aktivt bruger-
ne i udviklingen af nye services og materialer. 
Dette sker f.eks. gennem feedback og dialog 
med studerende og ansatte og brugerdre-
ven materialeanskaffelse, men også ved at 
inddrage VIP’er og studerende via universite-
tets Biblioteksudvalg, der årligt drøfter biblio-
teksservices, og f.eks. behandler bibliotekets 
accessionspolitik. 
 
Anna Slyngborg, AU Library
På AU Library arbejder vi kontinuerligt 
med at øge synligheden af bibliotekets mange 
services og faciliteter, både med fokus på den 
information og data, vi leverer, men også på 
det rum til fordybelse og fællesskab, som vi 
stiller til rådighed. Vi har et ønske om at styrke 
og videreudvikle biblioteket på en måde, der 
gør det endnu mere tydeligt for brugerne, 
hvordan og til hvad, de kan bruge biblioteket. 
Gennem fokus på sammenhængen mellem de 
mange forskellige fysiske biblioteksrum og 
vores digitale tilstedeværelse, herunder ensret-
ning af kommunikationen på de forskellige 
brugerrettede platforme, opbygger vi et fælles 
ståsted. 
Der er – og vil altid være – plads til lokale 
initiativer på de individuelle betjeningssteder. 
Det er med til at skabe ejerskab, hjemlighed og 
tilhørsforhold både blandt kolleger og brugere. 
Men vi har også et ønske om at fremstå med 
et mere genkendeligt udtryk, og en tydelig 
fælles identitet, der gør det nemmere for 
brugerne at genkende og navigere i vores 
tilbud. Derfor arbejder vi på at blive bedre til at 
dele lokale initiativer på tværs og samarbejde 
om tiltag, der fremmer bibliotekets synlighed. 
Dette arbejde finder sted i et netværk med 
fokus på brugerbetjening, kommunikation og 
synlighed. 
Som noget nyt har vi netop introduceret 
den første af to årlige temauger, der frem-
adrettet skal være med til at øge bibliotekets 
synlighed gennem øget tilstedeværelse og 
fokus på et aktuelt tema, hvilket skaber ekstra 
opmærksomhed og engagement i og omkring 
biblioteket. Hertil er det en øvelse i samarbej-
de og visuel koordinering for kolleger. De før-
ste to temauger kommer til at handle om AI og 
kritisk kildebevidsthed, og i løbet af ugen vil 
blandt andet en pop-op bogvogn rulle forbi en 
stor del af AU Library’s betjeningssteder med 
chokolade og quizzer, ligesom der vil hænge 
plakater i biblioteksrummene, posts og stories 
på Instagram, og vi blive afholdt ekstra åbne 
kurser med gratis kaffe og kage.  
Inge Kongsgaard, Det Kgl. Akademi 
Bibliotek
På Det Kongelige Akademis bibliotek 
betragter vi synliggørelse som en vigtig del af 
vores formidlingsindsats, og det er et arbejds-
område med høj prioritet.
Det er vores erfaring, at det først og frem-
mest er de personlige relationer og biblioteka-
rernes formidling ved fysisk tilstedeværelse, 
som bedst sikrer en synliggørelse af bibliote-
ket og vores services. 
På basis af den erfaring har vi knyttet en 
personlig bibliotekspartner til hvert af de 
syv institutter, som Akademiet består af. Som 
bibliotekspartner møder du de faglige miljø-
er i forskellige sammenhænge, og med tiden 
udvikler sig stabile faglige relationer mellem 
bibliotekspartneren og forskere samt undervi-
sere. Det er i høj grad her, de faglige miljøer får 
øjnene op for alt det, biblioteket kan. 
Synliggørelse af biblioteket og vores 
services er derudover indlejret i vores under-
visning i informationskompetencer til alle 
studerende – fra bachelor til ph.d. Et særligt 
momentum er studiestart i september, hvor 
vi arrangerer rundvisninger og biblioteks-
introduktioner i stort antal samt deltager i 
intro-events arrangeret af Akademiets studie-
administration. Her møder de studerende bib-
liotekarerne personligt, og det skaber særlig 
god grobund for at formidle vores services og 
ressourcer. 
Synliggørelse af biblioteket finder også 
sted, når vi f.eks. arrangerer forfattersaloner 
og lægger hus til nogle af Akademiets udstil-
linger.
I det digitale univers arbejder vi kontinuer-
ligt med nyhedsopslag om biblioteket og vores 
services på Instagram, Facebook og LinkedIn 
samt hjemmeside og intranet. Trykte plakater 
og postkort hører også med i ny og næ. 
Derudover arbejder vi med at synliggøre 
services i vores biblioteksbase på en måde, så 
brugerne under deres søgninger ledes ind på 
nye veje og går på opdagelse i nye muligheder 
– blandt andet i ’Forskningsassistent AI’, der 
nu ligger som beta version i biblioteksbasen 
bib.kglakademi.dk. 


English

Synlighed på FFU-bibliotekerne

REVY-redaktionen

REVY, årgang 48 (2) / 2025

This field report analyzes the unexpected challenges faced during participant observation in coworking spaces and how these challenges required a process of trial and error to be understood. Between 2018 and 2022, I studied the urban transformation of the Poblenou district of Barcelona, Spain. During my ethnographic observations, the coworking spaces did not align with the criteria of collaboration and social density established by previous research. This finding prompted methodological reflections on the role of ethnography, emphasizing the need to acknowledge that ethnographic research does not follow a standard formula, but rather requires continuous adaptation and interest in the evolving empirical reality

Testagorda, Josep Puigbó

Vacuums with Meaning: The Observation of Vacuity in Coworking Spaces

Kerstin Weisdorf

En ny strategi - et nyt navn

Få indblik i nogle af de artikler, som udkommer i de næste numre
af Samfundslederskab i Skandinavie

Melander, Preben

Kommende artikler

Sjørslev, Inger

Charlotte Andreas Baarts Under huden. Autoetnografi i praksis: Anmeldt af Inger Sjørslev

Kongerslev, Marianne

Book Review                                                    
10.22439/asca.v57i1.7496                                                                                                         
 
91 
BOOK REVIEW: 
Heidi Siegrist. All Y’all: Queering Southernness in US Fiction, 1980–2020. The University of North 
Carolina Press, 2024. 224 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4696-8281-5. DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.1353/book.124168. 
 
 
In All Y’all: Queering Southernness in US Fiction, 
1980-2020, Heidi Siegrist intervenes in southern 
and queer studies to make a case for reading 
queerness and southernness as parallel, if not 
co-constitutive. Southernness is a form of queer-
ness and queerness is a form of southernness—
in the sense that southernness is perceived as 
deviant Otherness. All Y’all inscribes itself into 
the emergent scholarship on the queer South, 
and it contributes to topical discussions in post-
southern studies. 
Although a more explicit reason for the tem-
poral delimitation (why 1980-2020?) would have 
added some clarity to the book, overall this work 
offers intriguing and nuanced readings of both 
(semi-)canonical US/southern texts and lesser-
known authors. One concern this reviewer has 
with the conceptualization of “post-southern” 
studies in general is that expanding the meaning 
of “the South” ad infinitum risks making the term 
meaningless. Siegrist avoids this by not limiting 
her study to southern fiction per se, but instead 
focusing on US fiction that represents the South 
more broadly. 
In her four thematically, theoretically, and tem-
porally diverse chapters, Siegrist traces the co-
constructions of queerness and southernness 
by “queering the queer south” (1). Each chapter 
centers on a select few authors or works that il-
lustrate how queerness and Southernness are 
articulated through disparate themes such as 
food, the swamp, southern nostalgia, melancho-
lia, and vampires. 
In the first chapter, “Southern-Fried Perversions: 
Queer Appetites in the Works of Fannie Flagg 
and Dorothy Allison,” Siegrist traces queerness 
in southern fiction through its articulation to 
food and eating. The analysis of Flagg’s Fried 
Green Tomatoes is particularly engaging, 
whereas the reading of Allison’s short story col-
lection is less persuasive. The section focusing 
on Allison is also significantly shorter—about 
half the length—than the section on Flagg, which 
in itself is unproblematic; however, here it re-
sults in a slightly unfinished feeling to the chap-
ter. The chapter furthermore includes a sort of 
interlude between the two authors, in which 
Siegrist briefly discusses the cookbook White 
Trash Cooking (1986) by Ernest Mathew Mickler. 
At first, this section seems like an odd inclusion; 
however, Siegrist manages to make it meaning-
ful as a contextual bridge between her readings 
of Flagg and Allison. 
Chapter two, “Near ’Bout: Randall Kenan’s 
Swampy Southern Queerness,” turns to the 
southern swamp as a site of queer and Black po-
tentiality. Focusing on most of the entire author-
ship of Randall Kenan, Siegrist explores how the 
swamp promotes various reconfigurations of 
spatial organization, from the plantation as an 
ur-symbol of the Old South to the texts them-
selves as sites of spatial/formalist innovation 
American Studies in Scandinavia 
57: 1, May 2025 
92 
 
and play. Kenan’s oeuvre, Siegrist insists, “asks 
us as readers, to revise our expectations of 
southernness, to reorient to it as a space of pos-
sibility for Black, queer resistance” (86). 
From this queer, Black resistance, Siegrist pivots 
to the Lost Cause, melancholy, and queer 
mourning in “Pornographies of History: Queer 
Southern Melancholy in the Works of Monique 
Truong and George Saunders.” Siegrist is careful 
not to equate southern melancholy with queer 
melancholy throughout the chapter, and rather 
than argue only for their similarities, she traces 
their differences and importantly outlines how 
they resonate despite fundamental incompati-
bilities. This chapter dives into two works by 
Saunders and one novel by Truong to explore 
how they approach the historical imaginary of 
the South. Although these texts do different 
things, Siegrist shows both the strengths and the 
limitations of melancholy as a reparative tool for 
destabilizing national and regional mythologies. 
Melancholy can (but does not necessarily) offer 
a backwards glance in order to imagine a differ-
ent future, and in doing so, this negative affect 
can be an instrument of change. 
The final chapter, “Southern Gothic Hospitality: 
Or, Inviting in the Queer Vampires of Poppy Z. 
Brite, George R. R. Martin, and Jewelle Gomez,” 
is perhaps simultaneously the most conven-
tional and potentially the most divisive in the 
book (only one of these authors is southern, 
even if the definition of ‘southern’ is stretched). 
Here Siegrist revisits the “generically familiar” 
(127) vampire through readings of William Jo-
seph Martin (aka Poppy Z. Brite), George R. R. 
Martin, and Jewelle Gomez. This chapter en-
gages with the recent post-Ricean history of the 
southern gothic through firstly invoking the 
queer vampire figure as a recognizable mon-
strous shorthand for sexual and other kinds of 
deviance in George R. R. Martin’s Fevre Dream 
(1982). Secondly, Siegrist reads Brite and Gomez 
as examples of how this traditional shorthand 
can be complicated and reconstructed to pro-
duce an image of queer vampirism as more con-
tradictory, unstable, and, yes, queer—multiple, 
fluid, oppositional, and indefinable. Throughout 
All Y’all, the Southern Gothic stalks Siegrist’s anal-
yses, from Flagg’s grotesque storytelling to 
Saunders’s and Truong’s ghostly melancholia, 
but outside of this chapter on queer vampires, it 
is not engaged with in depth. However, this is a 
minor point that does not detract from Siegrist’s 
expansive analyses and capacious scope. 
Siegrist ends with a coda on “Dragging Southern-
ness,” a somewhat truncated meditation on 
(perceived traditional) southern gender conven-
tions, which, she argues, “are particularly 
‘drag’able because they are already highly imita-
tive: performative, well-circulated, and accord-
ingly ripe for parody that deconstructs the idea 
of natural gender” (182). Siegrist covers a lot of 
ground in very few pages (pp. 159-65): Dolly Par-
ton’s gender performance, Lizzo’s (problematic) 
queer allyship, southern states’ curtailing of 
LGBTQ+ rights, Truman Capote’s Other Voices, 
Other Rooms, William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absa-
lom! and Scarlett O’Hara, to name a few topics. 
Because the reflections included in these pages 
are important, they deserve a little more atten-
tion than this coda gives them. 
Interspersed with the traditional literary read-
ings of her chosen texts, Siegrist includes essay-
istic personal anecdotes to situate or introduce 
the topics each chapter discusses. These lend 
the text a personal style that is refreshing, but 
may not be to everyone’s liking. It could be ar-
gued that including more cultural or social con-
textual material instead would have given the 
book a more universal academic appeal. How-
ever, this is not Siegrist’s errand with All Y’all, and 
as she alludes in the introduction, the personal 
touch is significant “in our current political cli-
mate, as LGBTQ rights become increasingly pre-
carious” (18). By coupling this personal aspect to 
Book Review  
10.22439/asca.v57i1.7496                                                                                                         
93 
 
the chapters’ thematic concerns, Siegrist high-
lights what is at stake for her individually, but 
also demonstrates why a book like this matters. 
Some chapters are more focused than others 
and some will probably require prior familiarity 
with the literary artifacts in question, but this 
book should be an engaging read for anyone in-
terested in in representations of southernness 
and southerners and the US South’s literary his-
tory, as it broadens our views of what counts as 
“the South.” All Y’all persuasively illustrates how, 
in US fiction, the South is always already 
queer(ed). 
_________________________________________________ 
Marianne Kongerslev 
Aalborg University 


All Y’all: Queering Southernness in US Fiction, 1980-2020

van Rens, Dirk

Book Review                                                    
10.22439/asca.v57i1.7498                                                                                                          
 
98 
BOOK REVIEW: 
Daphne Lamothe. Black Time and the Aesthetic Possibility of Objects. The University of North 
Carolina Press, 2023. 190 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4696-7532-9. 
 
 
Theorizations of Blackness and the examination 
of its expression in various artforms have at 
times been myopic in the sense of limiting their 
scope to a certain geographical or temporal con-
text. Such approaches risk overlooking the het-
erogeneity and broad spectrum of Black art and 
the way it (occasionally) interconnects, overlaps, 
or, conversely, contrasts and contradicts. Within 
this context, Daphne Lamothe’s Black Time and 
the Aesthetic Possibility of Objects proffers a dif-
ferent perspective. Structured around the con-
cept of “aesthetic time,” Lamothe’s monograph 
is largely disentangled from strict historical con-
texts and set conceptualizations of time. The lib-
erty afforded by this approach allows Lamothe 
to examine a wide breadth of Black creative en-
deavors from the late twentieth and early 
twenty-first centuries without the constraints of 
viewing Black art as “definitive/defining acts,” 
but rather as “partial attempts” (2). The stylistics 
of the book similarly go against the grain, as 
Lamothe writes in an essayistic style in order to 
facilitate innovative ideas within an infrequently 
employed framework. 
The notion of thresholds (re)surfaces repeatedly 
in the book, and Lamothe’s overall approach to 
artistic expressions of Blackness may best be de-
scribed as similarly existing on a threshold. That 
is, throughout the book, Blackness and Black art 
are posited as (un)constrained by history (Chap-
ter Five), as existing between “liveness” (111) and 
death (Chapter Six), as well as between opti-
mism and pessimism (Chapter Three). 
Lamothe’s methodology expressly seeks to 
avoid suggestions of homogeneity and a rigid, 
monolithic sense of Blackness by emphasizing 
“potentiality” and embracing Andrew Benjamin’s 
notion of the becoming-object of the work of art 
(24). This approach, combined with the wide 
range of artistic representations Lamothe anal-
yses, posits Black art as capacious and multitu-
dinous. At the same time, the essayistic format 
and the absence of a chapter dedicated to out-
lining the theoretical framework of the book at 
times hinder its coherence and the clarity of its 
argumentation. Structurally, Lamothe’s mono-
graph is divided into two sections consisting of 
four chapters each. The first four chapters pro-
vide analyses of case studies that negotiate what 
the author views as “the interrelated concepts of 
aesthetic time and optimism” (2). Section Two, 
meanwhile, revolves around a variety of works 
which emphasize the value of art by imagining 
and interrogating the notion of Blackness. 
Chapter One focuses on Stromae’s album Racine 
carrée (2013), particularly the track “Formidable” 
and its accompanying music video. Positioning 
Stromae’s music as virtually uncategorisable 
due to the plethora of cultural influences it 
draws on, Lamothe argues that the unmoored 
and fluid characteristics of Stromae’s stage per-
sona and his music “make his work representa-
tive of contemporary Blackness” (6). Lamothe 
positions the music video for “Formidable” as a 
nexus connecting various geographies, socie-
ties, and temporalities by virtue of its aesthetic 
American Studies in Scandinavia 
57: 1, May 2025 
99 
qualities. She subsequently connects Stromae’s 
“Formidable” with theories by critics such as 
Édouard Glissant and Nicolas Bourriaud, which 
emphasize the role of relations and connections; 
in this way, the music video can be regarded as 
an unattached and free-flowing aesthetic mani-
festation able to transgress varying “social and 
affective geographies,” facilitated by “spatial, so-
cial, and subjective” entanglements (12). At 
times, the theories employed by Lamothe and 
her subsequent analysis incorporate notions 
which resemble concepts such as Achille 
Mbembe’s entanglement (2001) and Ngũgĩ wa 
Thiong’o’s globalectical approach (2012). Regret-
tably, however, neither scholar is mentioned in 
the book. 
Chapter Two is framed as a reading of Tracy K. 
Smith’s memoir Ordinary Light (2015). However, 
Smith’s text is largely utilized as an entry point 
for discussing a range of critics and theoriza-
tions on writing and Blackness. Notions ranging 
from Toni Morrison’s “invisible ink” to the con-
cepts of “was-ness” and “is-ness” (28) are dis-
cussed. Lamothe impressively and intriguingly 
presents and brings into dialogue myriad con-
cepts. At the same time, the recurring argument 
of literature/art as a joint effort between 
writer/artist and reader/audience struggles to 
convince this reader as distinctly innovative, 
given, for instance, Roland Barthes’s well-known 
notion of writerly texts. The same arguably ap-
plies to the conclusion to Chapter Three, which 
largely revolves around questions of Black opti-
mism and pessimism. Here, Lamothe argues 
that “the aesthetic realm is uniquely endowed 
with the capacity to hold and express multiple, 
sometimes competing, truths about Blackness 
without having to organize those realities ac-
cording to a hierarchy of value” (50). The ability 
of art to express or interrogate complex notions 
by virtue of its aesthetic capabilities can hardly 
be viewed as a new insight. 
Unlike the other chapters, Chapter Four is not 
framed around a case study. Instead it takes a 
more reflective approach as it considers post-
soul aesthetics and the notion of “Black time” 
(51). Among other things, Lamothe considers the 
functioning of Black time as inherently tied to 
history (slavery, racism, oppression), yet simul-
taneously as possessing a freedom and potenti-
ality by virtue of post-soul aesthetics, making it 
“no longer possible to uncomplicatedly index 
Blackness according to historical time” (66). 
Lamothe’s emphasis on the way an attunement 
to aesthetics offers a sense of freedom and a 
means to capture Blackness in its capaciousness 
and complexity resonates strongly throughout 
the remaining chapters of the book. The same 
goes for the notion of the (un)timeliness of 
Blackness, which comes to the fore in a variety 
of cultural manifestations discussed in the mon-
ograph. 
Section Two opens with a chapter on works by 
the visual artist Toyin Ojih Odutola. Ojih Odu-
tola’s exhibition To Wander Determined encapsu-
lates Lamothe’s aforementioned emphasis on 
the imaginative and liberatory potential of art. 
Adopting Tavia Nyong’o’s concept of untimeli-
ness (see p. 72), Lamothe views Ojih Odutola’s 
exhibition of drawings as “represent[ing] a world 
beyond the historical determinations of coloni-
ality” (79). Perhaps paradoxically, Ojih Odutola’s 
work is also argued to acknowledge these very 
histories, as Lamothe asserts that they are “sim-
ultaneously invisible yet felt and known 
presences too” (82). To Wander Determined ex-
emplifies Lamothe’s intriguing use of the notion 
of thresholds to conceptualize Black art as am-
biguously and paradoxically poised between an 
anchoring and an imagination of an “alternate 
geography of Blackness in which subjectivity ex-
ists freely” (82). Lamothe’s analysis of visual art 
alongside the other forms of cultural expression 
examined in the book displays the impressive 
range of her analyses. 
Book Review  
10.22439/asca.v57i1.7498             
100 
In the remainder of the monograph, Lamothe 
again turns her attention to written work. Chap-
ter Six centers on Paule Marshall’s Brown Girl, 
Brownstones (1959) and Daughters (1991). The 
former is read as an exemplar of aesthetic opti-
mism, as Lamothe mobilizes the overarching 
tenets of her book to read Brown Girl, Brown-
stones as conceptualizing “Black past and future 
not as a binary but as a spectrum” (94). Lamothe 
subsequently observes a clear shift in Daughters, 
which, she argues, is characterized by a “melan-
cholic tone” (97). All the same, Daughters is read 
as similarly challenging a straightforward con-
ceptualization of time, specifically by framing it 
as a dialectic. Both novels are posited as provid-
ing significant reflections “on Blackness and its 
shifting meanings across time and space” (102). 
Similar notions recur in Chapter Seven, where 
Lamothe discusses Dionne Brand’s work in the 
light of “the dialectical nature of death and alive-
ness, from which Blackness derives its mean-
ings” (112). In addition, she expertly manages to 
reintroduce the notion of thresholds in relation 
to Brand’s poetry by pointing toward the central 
role they occupy spatially and ontologically. 
Lamothe’s decision not to discuss Brand’s work 
from a literary trauma studies perspective may 
be considered surprising, however, given that 
Brand’s work would seem to call out for such an 
approach. 
The final chapter revolves around Zadie Smith’s 
novel Swing Time (2016). Here, Lamothe skillfully 
sets up Smith’s novel as an exemplar of work 
which encapsulates the “complexities of being 
Black and its multiple and ever-changing feelings 
and meanings” (133). Lamothe’s analysis of 
Swing Time works excellently as the book’s final 
chapter, as Smith’s narrative embodies most of 
the key elements that resonate throughout Black 
Time; it points towards the entanglement, capa-
ciousness, and the complexity of Blackness, 
time, and aesthetics and, like Black Time itself, 
counters a myopic, monolithic, and rigid view on 
these matters. 
An ambitious book, Black Time and the Aesthetic 
Possibility of Objects features a wide range of au-
thors/artists from different contexts. Its essay-
istic style and incorporation of a variety of con-
cepts make for a compelling read that provides 
an innovative and unburdened perspective on 
Black art. Lamothe’s stylistic decision can be 
seen as a double-edged sword, however, as the 
book arguably lacks a clearly defined theoretical 
foundation. More importantly, the general lack 
of engagement with previous research on the 
case studies Lamothe analyses does not allow 
for fruitful interaction of scholarship and ob-
scures to what extent the book provides new or 
contrasting perspectives. Overall, however, 
Lamothe’s monograph provides an impressive 
array of engaging and wide-ranging analyses 
that are testament to the value of focusing on 
art and aesthetics in a way unconstrained by 
strict categories and, in so doing, provides an im-
portant contribution to the field. 
 
_________________________________________________ 
Dirk van Rens  
University of Eastern Finland 


Black Time and the Aesthetic Possibility of Objects

Parks, Justin

Vol. 57 No. 1 (2025)

Sunderland, Patricia

 
 
 
 
READERS’	CORNER	
	
Book	Review:	The	Market	of	the	Gods:	How	
Religious	Innovations	Emerge.	From	
Judaism	to	Christianity	by	Dominique	
Desjeux.	2024.	Bruxelles:	Peter	Lang		
Patricia Sunderland 
	
	
	
	
 
The	Market	of	the	Gods	by	Dominique	Desjeux	is	a	unique	and	provocative	
contribution	for	business	anthropology	as	well	as	the	larger	;ield	of	
anthropology.	In	this	work,	Desjeux	examines	the	origination	of	
Christianity	and	its	subsequent	spread	through	the	Greco-Roman	world.		
Desjeux	examines	the	rise	of	Christianity	as	an	extremely	successful	
innovation,	one	that	can	be	mined	as	an	illustrative	example	of	innovation	
processes	more	generally	as	well	as	strategically	compared	to	
contemporary	business	and	consumer	innovations.	As	he	states	in	his	
;irst	chapter:		
In	the	mid-;irst	century,	the	group	of	Christian	Jews	following	
Jesus,	who	could	be	compared	to	a	start-up,	numbered	no	more	
than	a	few	thousand	out	of	an	imperial	population	of	70	million.	
Two	hundred	and	;ifty	years	later,	there	were	nearly	9	million	
Christians	of	Jewish	origin.	This	shift	from	invisible	invention	to	
	
 
Page 1 of 4 
 
JBA 13(2): 132-135 
Fall 2024 
 
© The Author(s) 2024 
ISSN 2245-4217 
 
www.cbs.dk/jba 
	
DOI:		
https://doi.org/10.22
439/jba.v13i2.7448		
Sunderland	/	Book	Review	
 133	
	
collective	innovation	is	the	central	mystery	to	be	solved	(p.	22-
23).		
In	the	space	of	nine	relatively	short	chapters,	bookended	by	an	
introduction	and	a	conclusion,	we	are	taken	through	the	competitions	
among	Jewish	monotheism,	the	movements	that	spawned	the	future	
Christian	monotheism	and	Greco-Roman	polytheisms.	We	learn	that	
polytheism	and	monotheism	co-existed	for	a	considerable	amount	of	
time.	Desjeux	notes	that	even	if	Jewish	monotheism	was	born	around	the	
time	of	the	beginning	of	the	Kingdom	of	Israel	in	the	11th	century	BC,	
polytheism	continued	until	at	least	70	AD.	We	also	learn	of	the	
Hellenization	and	the	Romanization	that	spread	to	the	Jerusalem	area,	
which	in	turn	also	made	the	way	for	Greek	speaking	Jewish	Christians	and	
their	diaspora,	which	was	a	vital	factor	for	the	Christian	innovation.	This	
use	of	Greek	was	a	soft	power	in;luence	of	language,	but,	as	Desjeux	
points	out,	there	were	also	conquests;	for	instance,	from	the	Roman	world	
that	also	helped	usher	in	monotheism	over	polytheism,	illustrating	how	
innovations	are	often	spread	not	only	peacefully,	but	also	by	harder	and	
less	peaceful	means.		
Desjeux	also	points	to	the	way	that	the	Christian	notions	of	
resurrection	and	eternal	life	were	helpful	ways	of	solving	or,	at	least,	
coping	with	suffering	in	life	and,	thus,	readily	adopted.	Crucially,	however,	
Desjeux	is	clear	that	it	was	not	only	the	spread	of	ideas,	but	the	spread	of	
activities	and	practices	that	surrounded	those	ideas	which	was	crucial	in	
the	successful	uptake	of	Christianity.	Getting	rid	of	circumcision	and	the	
eating	restrictions	of	kashrut	were	key	in	the	spread	of	Christianity.	The	
ritual	of	baptism,	a	kind	of	one-and-done	puri;ication	ritual,	was	also	
relatively	easy	in	comparison	to	earlier	practices	such	as	animal	sacri;ice.	
Making	these	practical	changes	in	religious	rituals	made	life	easier.	
Returning	to	cognitive	issues	per	Desjeux,	these	changes	in	practice	
reduced	the	“mental	load.”		
Signi;icantly,	Desjeux	does	not	view	the	developments	that	led	to	
the	uptake	of	Christianity	as	occurring	in	a	linear	fashion	nor	that	these	
occurred	without	considerable	bumps	in	the	road	as	well	as	intense	
human	energy	to	keep	the	processes	moving	forward.	Moreover,	he	does	
not	see	the	process	as	inevitable	or	predetermined	in	any	way.	Rather,	he	
focuses	on	the	importance	of	chance	occurrences,	invoking	the	metaphor	
of	the	black	swan,	as	he	points	out	that	even	if	the	;irst	nine	swans	one	
encounters	are	white,	it	does	not	mean	that	the	tenth	swan	will	not	be	
black.	In	the	case	of	Christianity,	the	destruction	of	the	Temple	in	70AD	
was	the	black	swan	event;	that	is,	the	chance	occurrence	that	
considerably	aided	the	Christian	innovation.		
Sprinkled	throughout	the	chapters,	Desjeux	has	included	pointers	
to	what	he	has	termed	“invariants”	of	the	innovation	process.	He	has	
derived	these	invariants	from	the	innovation	literature	as	well	as	his	
Journal	of	Business	Anthropology,	13(2),	Fall	2024	
 
 134	
	
many	decades	of	experience	working	with	innovation	in	organizations,	
agriculture,	and	consumer	goods	not	only	in	Europe,	but	also	Asia,	Africa,	
and	North	and	South	America.	For	instance,	he	points	to	the	importance	
of	proselytism	as	one	of	the	constants,	or	“invariant	mechanisms,”	for	the	
spread	of	innovations,	noting	the	work	of	Paul	the	Apostle	as	a	key	
mobilizing	;igure	for	the	spread	of	Christianity	and	advertising	as	a	
proselytizing	form	of	persuasion	for	contemporary	products	and	services.	
I	found	myself	thinking	that	these	invariants	of	innovation	were	very	
provocative	and	could	be	helpful	heuristics	for	other	studies.	For	
instance,	included	are	the	following:		
• “Innovation	is	always	comprised	of	continuity	and	discontinuity.		
This	is	its	central	paradox”	(p.	20).		
• “There	is	no	innovation	without	a	social	network”	(p.	29).		
• “Proselytism	is	itself	the	product	of	mobility,	another	constant	of	
innovation	processes”	(p.	38).		
• “An	idea	does	not	spread	just	by	virtue	of	being	good,	or	‘logical,’	
or	rational,	or	‘coherent,’	but	also	because	social	groups	spend	a	
lot	of	energy	making	sure	it	is	successful”	(p.	52).		
• “Innovation	does	not	only	disrupt	technology	or	services,	it	also	
disrupts	social	relations	among	human	groups.	This	disruption	is	
often	the	sign	that	an	innovation	is	progressing”	(p.	99).	
I	found	myself	wishing	that	these	insights,	invariants,	and	heuristics	of	
innovation	should	be	collected,	and	I	do	hope	that	Desjeux’s	next	work	
will	do	just	that.		
In	the	meantime,	this	work	is	a	model	not	only	for	understanding	
innovation	and	entrepreneurship,	but	as	an	inspirational	muse	for	using	
the	method,	mindset,	and	analytic	frameworks	we	have	mastered	as	
business	anthropologists	to	examine	social	and	historical	questions	that	
may	seem	beyond	the	business	purview.	Desjeux	frames	his	model	as	one	
of	“strategic	anthropology.”	I	look	forward	to	other	researchers	building	
on	this	model,	looking	at	other	social	revolutions,	both	past	and	present,	
from	a	business	anthropological	perspective.	We	stand	at	a	moment	when	
looking	at	contemporary	political	innovations	through	this	lens	might	be	
just	the	place	to	start.		
	
Sunderland	/	Book	Review	
 135	
	
	
Patricia	(Patti)	Sunderland	has	been	an	anthropological	consultant	
for	commercial	as	well	as	non-profit	clients	for	over	20	years.	Her	
clients	have	ranged	from	Unilever	and	SC	Johnson	to	YouTube	and	
Microsoft	to	Feeding	America	and	Georgetown	University.	Her	cultural	
analyses	have	provided	strategic	insight	for	the	successful	makeover	of	
brands,	retail	and	service	environments,	as	well	as	contributed	to	the	
launch	of	new	advertising,	products,	and	brand	strategies.	She	is	co-
author	with	Rita	Denny	of	Doing	Anthropology	in	Consumer	Research	
(2007)	and	co-editor	of	the	Handbook	of	Anthropology	in	Business	
(2014).	Patti	currently	splits	her	time	between	New	York	City	and	
Addis	Ababa,	Ethiopia.		
Patti	Sunderland	can	be	reached	at:	patti@crastudio.com		


Book Review: The Market of the Gods: How Religious Innovations Emerge. From Judaism to Christianity by Dominique Desjeux. 2024. Bruxelles: Peter Lang

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