Being, doing and leading in the project society

The last decades have seen a proliferation of projects across different contexts, from the building of an iconic venue to the planning of a family vacation. Building on Jensen (2009) work on the project society and Jensen et al (2016) articulation of projects as human conditions, this article explores strategies for living in the project society. Guided by the philosophical concepts of activity, time, space and relations, we explore the project society as an ideal type, in opposition to the disciplinary society. We discuss implications of being, doing and leading in a project society. Taken together this analysis describes some of the key challenges emerging from the project society and suggests some ideas and advices to fellow project man and woman, navigating in project society.
The work extends our understanding of projects beyond organizational settings – to a societal and individual level. We argue that, first, our growing and insightful body of literature on project organizing can become useful for each one of us as individuals navigating in project society. Second, it opens up to a more extensive empirical context – studying behaviour of people in projects, outside classic organizational settings. In this respect, the article serves as a basis for future research on living in the project society where nothing lasts forever but our projects define who we are and what we can become.