Feminist, liberation, black, mujerista theologians have all used embodiment as a way of understanding and articulating the struggles of being and becoming. They are attempting to redeem the body and therefore redeem incarnation. Seeing the body as central in theological discourse such academic communities have enabled further research around embodiment and disability, sexuality, and identity. Research around embodiment and management, the workplace and organisation has also taken place. Elaine Swan in her paper in Management Learning 2005 writes that:
Management… has been coded as disembodied… feminist management theories have suggested that this imagined disembodied-ness of management has led to women managers’ bodies being seen as, ‘problematic signifiers’ in the work place.[3]
When thinking of embodiment in the Church and/or in the workplace we are also thinking of the experiential story of the body, the symbolic and representational role of the body not just it’s physical presence in a given time or place, so that for those researching embodiment and management it becomes clear that there are significant cultural and historical challenges written onto the body. Kate Kenny and Emma Ball highlight this in ‘The Handbook of Gender, Work and Organisations’ when they state that:
Bodily practices constitute an important means by which the norms, values and beliefs associated with a particular culture are enacted, and proficiency as a cultural member is demonstrated. For women managers this presents a distinct challenge, since their bodies are defined as inherently abnormal from the outset and thus unsuited to managerial cultures.[4]