Enabling Creative Chaos
The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event
In the summer of 2008, nearly fifty thousand people traveled to Nevada’s Black Rock Desert to participate in the countercultural arts event Burning Man. Founded on a commitment to expression and community, the annual weeklong festival presents unique challenges to its organizers. Over four years Katherine K. Chen regularly participated in organizing efforts to safely and successfully create a temporary community in the middle of the desert under the hot August sun.
Enabling Creative Chaos tracks how a small, underfunded group of organizers transformed into an unconventional corporation with a ten-million-dollar budget and two thousand volunteers. Over the years, Burning Man’s organizers have experimented with different management models; learned how to recruit, motivate, and retain volunteers; and developed strategies to handle regulatory agencies and respond to media coverage. This remarkable evolution, Chen reveals, offers important lessons for managers in any organization, particularly in uncertain times.
Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA): ARNOVA-Outstanding Book in Nonprofit & Voluntary Action Research
Won
ASA/Occupations & Organizations Section: ASA-Max Weber Award
Honorable Mention
“Katherine Chen immersed herself in the world of Burning Man, the fascinating community that gathers annually for a week-long arts celebration in the Nevada desert. Her marvelous portrait of this unusual collective provides a rich template for considering how organizations of all varieties strike a balance between flexibility and fairness and creativity and security. This is one of the best organizational ethnographies I've seen in many years.”
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: The Perils of Under- and Overorganizing
2 Context: The Development of the Burning Man Event and Organization
3 “Do-ocracy”: Acting on Suggestions and Criticisms
4 “Radical Inclusion”: Attracting and Placing Members
5 “No Spectators”: Motivating Members to Contribute
6 “Immerse Yourself”: Managing Relations in the Pursuit of Legitimacy
7 Conclusion: Sustaining Creative Chaos
Appendix 1. Ethnography and Qualitative Research
Appendix 2. Interview Protocols
Notes
Reference List
IndexAnthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Art: American Art
Economics and Business: Business--Business Economics and Management Studies
Sociology: Collective Behavior, Mass Communication | Formal and Complex Organizations | Sociology of Arts--Leisure, Sports
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