9th OS Summer Workshop and Special Issue of ORGANIZATION STUDIES
RESISTANCE; RESISTING, AND RESISTERS IN AND AROUND ORGANIZATIONS
22-24 May 2014, Corfu, Greece
www.os-workshop.com
DEADLINE for submission of abstracts for the OS Workshop: DECEMBER 16th, 2013
(Please note: There is a separate deadline for submissions to the Special Issue)
CONVENERS
Ignasi Martí (EMLYON Business School)
Dennis K Mumby (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
David Seidl (University of Zurich)
Robyn Thomas (Cardiff Business School)
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Karen L. Ashcraft (University of Colorado Boulder)
David Courpasson (EM LYON Business School)
ABOUT ORGANIZATION STUDIES WORKSHOPS
The Organization Studies Workshop is an annual activity, originally launched in June 2005, to facilitate high-quality scholarship in organization studies. Its primary aim is to advance cutting-edge research on important topics in the field by bringing together a small and competitively selected group of scholars, who will have the opportunity to interact in depth and share insights in a stimulating and scenic environment. Since 2010 the OS Workshop has been sponsored by Sage in order to help attract talented scholars from diverse regions of the world, consistent with the editorial mission of Organization Studies. The OS Workshops are usually linked to a special issue of Organization Studies on the same topic.
ABOUT THE TOPIC
Resistance has had a rather curious and paradoxical history. From the resistance to Nazi occupation and colonial domination, to the recent Arab Spring and Indignados of Spain, resistance is often celebrated in the public imaginary. However, while it has been a central and enduring theme in political and social theory, traditionally resistance has had a marginal reputation in conventional organization studies. Viewed as a problem, a challenge, and something to be avoided or eradicated, resistance is often equated with troublemaking. In other words, the dominant view in organization studies holds that resistance is adversarial, problematic and harmful for organizations, communities, and societies alike. However, recent, alternate voices have argued that the study of resistance, resisting and resisters has the potential to bring new perspectives to the intersection of economic, social, and political aspects and processes in and around organizations and organizing.
Resistance takes many forms: from collective (organized, hidden, or overt and violent forms of confrontation), to individual (routine, micro-political, silent and anonymous forms of challenge and struggle). Much of the focus among organization scholars has been in overt forms of collective, coordinated and planned resistance, particularly in the form of social movements. However, less attention has been devoted to other forms of both active resistance practices (for example, machine sabotage, foot dragging, boss napping, theft, whistleblowing, and 'careful carelessness') and more quiescent forms (for example, withholding information, fantasy and escape, cynicism, irony, satire, and constructions of alternative selfhood). While research has highlighted the myriad forms that resistance can take, the resistant subject is, in the main, still associated with low-level employees. Less attention has been given to other resistant identities: professional, managerial and institutional forms of resistance and misbehavior. Moreover, the way in which intent to resist is inscribed in resistance practices and subjectivities, and what differences forms of resistance can make to individuals or collectives, warrants greater empirical and theoretical consideration.
The aim of this workshop (and the subsequent Special Issue of OS) is to: (a) advance studies of resisting, resistance and resisters in and around organizations; (b) stimulate innovative theorizing on resistance in a variety of organizational, geographic, and cultural settings; (c) facilitate discussion and connections with resistance studies from diverse disciplines; and (d) develop understandings of engaged scholarship and possibilities for making a difference through resistance.
For that purpose, we invite theoretical and empirical papers, especially from the fields of anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies, industrial relations, management studies, political philosophy, political science, sociology, and others. We especially welcome papers that are situated in diverse geographies and disciplinary traditions, and that study and reflect upon different kinds of resistance: individual and collective; covert and overt; routine and 'heroic stands'.
The following is a list of indicative, but not exhaustive, topic areas, all of which could be addressed:
On the anatomy of resistance:
- Resistant practices: different expressions of resistance (e.g., whistleblowing, micro-political, misbehaviour, routine).
- Resistant spaces and the appropriation of spaces: safe havens, free spaces, or working spaces; occupation of public spaces.
- Resisting subjects: resistant identities and alternative selves, rewriting dominant discourses, owning resistance, redefining/regaining identities, (re)gaining dignity.
- Embodied resistance: from boss napping and physical obstruction through to subversive clothing, bodily adornment, and forms of embodied parody.
Forms of resistance:
- Power-resistance relations: oppositional, transversal, micro-political, and the relationship of resistance with agency.
- New forms of activism and protest: online resistance and ancient/venerable/legacy forms of resistance, for example, by indigenous peoples.
- Social movements
- Resistance events, protest and spectacle.
- Creative and community resistance. From the assertion of land rights, land grabs and guerilla gardening to creative forms of arts-based resistance.
- Institutionalized forms of resistance and corporate misbehaviour, from ethical violations through to refusal, discrediting and repression of resisters who challenge forms of oppression and exploitation.
- Academic resistance and the public intellectual
Resistance effects:
- Resistance and change: making a difference and making resistance count
- Unintended consequences of resistance
- Organizational responses to and/or countering of resistance
SUBMISSIONS
The 9th Organization Studies Workshop will take place in May 2014, in Corfu, Greece. Interested participants must submit an abstract through the following link:
http://os-workshop.com/abstractsubmitform.html. The abstract should be of no more than 1,000 words for their proposed contribution by December 16th, 2013.
Authors will be notified of acceptance or otherwise by January 17th, 2014. Full papers must be submitted by April 30, 2014. The venue of the workshop is Corfu Holiday Palace (http://www.corfuholidaypalace.gr/). Further details on the logistics of the workshop will be published through the OS Workshop Website (www.os-workshop.com).
Following the workshop, a Special Issue will be announced in Organization Studies. To be considered for publication, papers must be submitted via the OS website at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/orgstudies by November 30, 2014. There you can also find guidelines for submission and information on the review procedures. Please note that participation in the workshop is highly recommended (but not a prerequisite) if you intend to submit a paper to the Special Issue.
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Prof. David Seidl, PhD
Chair of Organization & Management
University of Zurich | Department of Business Administration
Universitaetsstrasse 84 | 8006 Zurich | Switzerland
Phone +41.44.6343750 | Fax +41.44.6343749
www.om.uzh.ch | david.seidl@uzh.ch
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