The devil in high heels: drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss

Acevedo, B; Warren, S; Wray-Bliss, E

The devil in high heels: drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss

Acevedo, B Warren, S Wray-Bliss, E

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Publisher:: Routledge
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Culture and Organization, 2009, 15 (3/4), pp. 331 - 346
Issue Date:: 2009-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Acevedo, B	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Warren, S	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Wray-Bliss, E	en_US
dc.date.issued	2009-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Culture and Organization, 2009, 15 (3/4), pp. 331 - 346	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1475-9551	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10664
dc.description.abstract	This paper contributes to critical voices on the issue of organisational responses to employee drug use. It does so by exploring symbolic readings of organisations' relations with drugs and drug-taking. Our focus is recent coverage of, and organisational responses to, the UK tabloid media's expose of fashion supermodel Kate Moss's alleged cocaine use. We consider that the celebrity endorsement in this particular case highlights the ambiguities created by the symbolic associations between the organisation and the 'image' projected by the celebrity. Overall, we use this case to explore symbolic relationships between drugs, sex, femininity and organisation. Through highlighting these connections, we question further the rationality of organisational responses to employee drug use and, utilising Derrida's (1981) extension of Plato's notion of the pharmakon, consider whether workforce drug testing might be fruitfully seen as a symbolic mechanism for scapegoating and sacrifice in order to protect the organisation's (masculine) moral order.	en_US
dc.publisher	Routledge	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Culture and Organization	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/14759550903250759	en_US
dc.title	The devil in high heels: drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	3/4	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	15	en_US
utslib.for	220102 Business Ethics	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Business
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	3/4	en_US
pubs.volume	15	en_US

Abstract:

This paper contributes to critical voices on the issue of organisational responses to employee drug use. It does so by exploring symbolic readings of organisations' relations with drugs and drug-taking. Our focus is recent coverage of, and organisational responses to, the UK tabloid media's expose of fashion supermodel Kate Moss's alleged cocaine use. We consider that the celebrity endorsement in this particular case highlights the ambiguities created by the symbolic associations between the organisation and the 'image' projected by the celebrity. Overall, we use this case to explore symbolic relationships between drugs, sex, femininity and organisation. Through highlighting these connections, we question further the rationality of organisational responses to employee drug use and, utilising Derrida's (1981) extension of Plato's notion of the pharmakon, consider whether workforce drug testing might be fruitfully seen as a symbolic mechanism for scapegoating and sacrifice in order to protect the organisation's (masculine) moral order.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10664