The power of daydreaming: the aesthetic act of a new beginning
Jenny Helin, Matilda Dahl, Pierre Guillet de Monthoux
Culture and Organization October 4, 2021 DOI: 10.1080/14759551.2021.1986505 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Qualitative field study with theoretical/philosophical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1 |
| Population | A rural entrepreneur who uses daydreaming as her main strategic tool in developing her farm |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | Argues that daydreaming is an embodied act emerging at the intersection of relational materiality, vertical temporality and aesthetic space. Contends that organizations should stop focusing on making dreams come true and instead enable people to dream anew, because that is when new beginnings can be born and the will to act can be released. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT What can we learn from a better understanding of the process of daydreaming in an organizational context? That is the main question underpinning this study. Based on a field study with a rural entrepreneur that uses daydreaming as her main strategic tool in the development of her farm, and a reading of Bachelard’s work on the phenomenology of ‘reverie,’ we come to understand daydreaming as an embodied act that emerges at the intersection between relational materiality, vertical temporality and aesthetic space. This conceptualization of daydreaming reminds us that rather than focusing on how to make dreams come true, which is the traditional way of relating to dreams in organizational life, there is a need to enable people to dream anew, because that is when new beginnings can be born, and the particular will to act, through daydreaming, can be released.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Other as a Nightmare: The Israeli-Arab Encounter as Reflected in Children's Dreams in Israel and the West Bank Jewish and Arab fifth to seventh graders living in various settings in Israel and the... | 1989 | Qualitative content analysis | n = 212 |
| Nonwaking Responses to Waking Stressors: Dreams and Nightmares1 Men from the cohort eligible for military duty during the Vietnam Conflict, varying in... | 1990 | Survey interview study | n = 442 |
| Communing with the Gods: The Dreaming Brain in Cross-cultural Perspective | 2011 | Phenomenological study | |
| Partial memory reinstatement while (lucid) dreaming to change the dream environment. Lucid dreamers | 2020 | Qualitative study | |
| Strange themes in pandemic dreams: Insomnia was associated with more negative, anxious and death‐related dreams during the COVID‐19 pandemic Global survey participants | 2022 | Longitudinal mixed-methods study | n = 2,240 |