Publishing News

Congratulations to Art Sementelli, Ph.D., Professor and Ph.D. Program Coordinator, on his recently published article “Life Imitates Art: Yojimbo, Critical Management, and Contractors”  in Organization (Sage Journals).

The article illustrates how the Japanese Samurai film Yojimbo provides a critical representation of work and organizations as a context for how contemporary micro emancipation might be undertaken.

“This topic is an extension of my work since I’ve been a graduate student,” Dr. Sementelli said. “I was trained by Cleveland State University faculty, including Larry Terry.  As a consequence, administrative actions and their implications have always informed my work.”

“As a young scholar, I started working on research and pedagogy that used pop cultural imagery to communicate complex ideas.  This topic in essence, marries my underlying concern about contracting and my longstanding interest in Akira Kurosawa films.  Yojimbo illustrates guerrilla governance by contractors pretty elegantly, making it a logical choice.”

Dr. Sementelli argues that contractors might become the newest frontier in the study of both micro emancipation and organizational misconduct, setting the tone for an emergent area of discussion about contemporary micro emancipation across sectors.

“My hope is that readers begin to understand the consequences of deinstitutionalizing government institutions,” Dr. Sementelli said. “Specifically, there is a profound lack of oversight of contractors relative to public employees. This allows people to engage in guerrilla governance often without the repercussions one might experience as a full-time public employee. It’s a pretty significant change from more traditional views of government, while highlighting some of the problems associated with privatization narratives.”