Contemporary Circus as Organizational Heterotopias: A Multi-sited Ethnography in the Brazilian-Canadian Context

Abstract This study seeks to understand contemporary circuses from an organizational heterotopia perspective by carrying out a theoretical approach between Practice-based Studies in Organizational Studies and the concept of heterotopias, developed by Michel Foucault. Through a multi-sited ethnography focused on the organizational processes of contemporary circuses in Brazil and Canada, we identified sets of organizational practices altering the relationships of forces in the field of Arts in the researched contexts, resulting in the production of other spaces - or heterotopias, according to Michel Foucault - in society enabling the circuses to be constituted as organizations. We present the concept of organizational heterotopias as a theoretical contribution to analyze organizations based on socio-spatial multiplicity. The methodological contribution of this paper is the introduction of multi-sited ethnography as a research strategy for studies on organizational processes established in different cultural contexts and locations.