[ecrea] CFP: Transparent Communication. Organisations, Communication and Transparency, International Conference, Brussels, November 2013

Call for papers - Transparent Communication. Organisations, 
Communication and Transparency.

International scientific conference - Brussels, 21-22 November 2013

General presentation of the theme

This international conference is grounded by the desire to review 
current research in several countries on the issue of "transparency", as 
current central element of organisational communication – whether as 
content (communicating on transparency) or as communication modality 
(transparent communication).

As underlined by J.-J. Boutaud (2005, see also N° 52 of Quaderni, 2003, 
and N° 97 of Pouvoirs, 2001), and as evidenced by the frequency of 
occurrence of the term in social actors’ discourse, transparency has now 
become a protean figure or value. It is potentially invasive and able to 
most largely determine the construction and movement of objects and 
practices that are current signifiers of our “hypermodern” societies, 
paving the way to a transparent form of social life.

The conference will focus on the presence of transparency in the field 
of organizational communication. The organisation that wants to (or 
should) be transparent – and therefore legitimate and trustworthy – must 
unveil itself and its entrails, pertaining to the “glass house” model, 
which very significantly, gave its name to the first French professional 
association of public relations in 1950 (“la maison de verre”). In order 
to ensure stakeholders’ trust, organisations ought to make their inner 
confines and compartments transparent and permeable.

If transparency is an affirmed and guaranteed “quality”, it may also be 
perceived as trickery, as an instrument of power and domination, as a 
source of mistrust and suspicion. Paradoxically, the hyperbole of 
“making things known” can generate opacity (as mentioned by Serge Daney, 
“to reveal things, one needs shadow and light”). The strive for 
transparency may spill into a “show everything” tyranny, as already 
pointed out by a number of science fiction authors (Orwell, Huxley). 
This tyranny would replace trust and the respect for intimacy. 
Transparency is in a permanent dialectic with its direct opposite: 
secret (State secrets, trade secrets, professional secrecy, etc.). The 
organisation must always position itself between these two extremes as 
regards speeches or behavior.

Transparency, whether as a form or as a content of communication, 
establishes itself as an ethical imperative (a “duty to inform”), and 
reciprocally as a “power of knowing”. These imperatives appear as 
absolute: the “social inward dimension of organisations” is called to 
become more and more exteriorised. But, as already emphasized by 
Boutaud, this ethical dimension of organizational transparency must not 
overlook the aesthetic dimension at its base. Transparency never ceases 
to incarnate into sensitive configurations. For example, office 
settings, buildings, but also textualities, instructions and 
regulations, forms of enunciation, types of physical or mediated 
exchanges. Social media plays here an important role in the current 
claim that considers transparency as a central element in organizational 
communication, a claim to be verified in concrete cases.

Focus of research and areas involved

Different approaches and research areas in organisational communication 
sciences are solicited when it comes to the issue of transparency. 
Participants may develop approaches in the fields of critical theory, 
systemic theory, pragmatic analysis, semiotic analysis, narratology, 
mediology, constitutive theory (i.e. the analysis of communication as a 
constitutive dimension of organisations), as well as discourse analysis 
and linguistics. The analysis shall not be limited to verbal aspects, 
but will also include the analysis of other communicational aspects such 
as image, architecture, behaviour, etc.

The main areas of work, in which submissions are expected, will focus on:

Theory: transparency, communication, and organisations

Participants targeting this particular area are invited to reflect on 
the general relationship between transparency and organisational 
communication, i.e. theorisations of transparent communication. E.g. 
what effects has “transparency” on communication theory? Certain 
paradigms of thought seem to allow an integration of “transparency” as a 
necessary step towards a fully humanizing communication, as for instance 
in Habermas’ thought. But in the Social Media and collaborative Web era, 
how must we rethink these paradigms, in particular at a time where 
mistrust towards institutions and globalisation is generally increasing? 
From a critical point of view, and with regards to the analysis of the 
circulation of power and influence, how does transparency position 
itself in relation to the current communication practices?

Internet and transparency

The outburst of the 2.0 Internet profoundly affects our society and 
shapes a particular media environment suitable for the dissemination of 
the “transparency imperative” in organisational communication. In 
addition, companies and institutions now seek to use new digital 
textualities of conversation to support their transparent image, i.e. 
portraying themselves while practicing and “celebrating” transparency. 
Participants may choose to analyse this specific triangle (Web 2.0, 
transparency and organisations) thereby identifying the links between 
these different elements, and reflect about the increased media 
revolution that is underway, i.e. the search for transparency within 
organisations.

The rhetoric of transparency in organizational communication

This aspect mainly focuses on the presence of transparency as rhetorical 
figure and as communication content. How do organisations and their 
members communicate about transparency? Which rhetoric emerges, built on 
these semiotic constructions? Participants may therefore epitomise the 
different practices, mobilisations, instrumentalisations and emergences 
of transparency in speeches, texts and media. Different approaches to 
textualities and organisational conversations are envisaged: the ones 
being more attentive to interactions and to the dynamics of the 
construction of meaning around transparency. Others will be more 
interested in the internal architecture of produced textualities 
(semiotics, narratology, etc.) or seeking to combine different aspects. 
The research field is rather large: internal, external, corporate, or 
financial communication, commercial-product communication, communication 
practices of associations or public institutions, etc.

Communication, labour, management, control and transparency

In this area, we are looking for studies focusing on the relationship 
between transparency and management, regulation and organisation 
practices in organisations. Ethics and legal aspects will hereby be 
discussed. Regulations requiring, for example in the public domain, 
access obligations to information are an interesting example of norms 
influencing communication activities and the construction of meaning by 
organisation members. These rules, laws, codes, and the general trend 
towards “judicialization” of organisational communication helps building 
the context of transparency as genuine contemporary imperative. In this 
particular focus, one shall reflect on ways to “socialise” members of 
organisations to the transparency issue, in their working life (through 
training, internal communication actions such as launching new social 
corporate networks, etc.).

Crisis and transparency

This section focuses on the relevance of transparency in crisis 
communication. Researchers may propose studies and reflections on 
specific cases of crisis communication policies, examining the 
relationship between strategies, devices, crisis situations and the 
requirement of transparency. They could stress the importance of 
transparency in crisis communication strategies, or analysis the 
perception and the feedback of actors about it. Is transparency relevant 
in crisis communication policies? Is “transparency” really present? What 
visions do internal and external actors share as regards “transparency” 
in corporate communications?

Environmental communication, CSR and transparency

How do communication practices use the notion of transparency as regards 
the protection of the environment or the issue of corporate social 
responsibility? While environment and CSR are now central elements in 
the discourse of public and private organisations, they lost in the same 
time part of their influence in giving credibility and legitimacy: 
transparency thereby appears as an essential prerequisite (though partly 
mythically and rhetorically grounded, as mentioned above). The 
exploration of this triangular relationship (organisations, 
environment/CSR and transparency) will be the main focus of this section.

Practical information

The conference will be in English and French.

The conference will be held in Brussels (IHECS, Bord de Verre building, 
Rue du Poinçon 15).

Abstracts in English or French to (andrea.catellani /at/ uclouvain.be) or 
(thierry.libaert /at/ uclouvain.be). Max. 2000 characters, references excluded. 
Deadline: 30 March 2013.

Notification of acceptance: 30 April 2013.

Deadline for full articles: 15 October 2013.

Conference dates: 21 and 22 November 2013.

After the conference, a selection of papers will be made for an ensuing 
bilingual publication (English and French) on transparency and 
organizational communication.

Steering committee

Thierry Libaert (UCL), Andrea Catellani (UCL), Audrey Crucifix (UCL), 
Gervais Cwako (UCL), Christine Hambursin (UCL), François Heinderickx 
(ULB, president of ICA), Béatrice Jalenques-Vigouroux (INSA Toulouse - 
LASCO), Mélanie Notte (UCL), Sophie Pochet (UCL), Joël Saucin (IHECS - 
UCL), Emmanuel Wathelet (UCL).

Scientific committee

Thierry Libaert (UCL), Andrea Catellani (UCL), Françoise Albertini 
(Université de Corse), Françoise Bernard (Université d’Aix-Marseille), 
Jean-Jacques Boutaud (Université de Bourgogne), Anne-Marie Cotton 
(Arteveldehogeschool, Gand), Nicole D’Almeida (Université Paris 
IV-Sorbonne), Gino Gramaccia (Université Bordeaux I), Anne Gregory 
(Leeds Metropolitan University), Oyvind Ihlen (University of Oslo), 
François Lambotte (UCL), Christian Le Moenne (Université européenne de 
Bretagne Rennes 2), Jacquie L’Etang (Queen Margaret University, 
Edinburgh), Marc Lits (UCL), Catherine Loneux (Université européenne de 
Bretagne Rennes 2), Jordi Xifra (Université Pompeu Fabra, Barcelone), 
Béatrice Jalenques-Vigouroux (INSA Toulouse-LASCO), Ralph Tench (Leeds 
Metropolitan University), Michèle Venturini (Université de Corse), 
Jacques Walter (Université de Lorraine), Ansgar Zerfass (Univ. of Leipzig).

The conference is organized with the support of SFSIC (Société Française 
des Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication).
Thierry Libaert and Andrea Catellani (UCL, Belgium)


LASCO - Laboratoire d'Analyse des Systèmes de Communication des 
Organisations
http://www.uclouvain.be/lasco.html


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