[ecrea] CfP EGOS 2016 - SWG 16 'Organization as Communication: (Dis)organizing through Texts, Artifacts and Other Materialities'

Following the official launching in 2015 of our Standing Working Group
(SWG)* “Organization as Communication”**, we are very happy to
announce the sub-theme for the 2016 Colloquium of the European Group of
Organizational Studies (EGOS) that will take place in Naples (July 7-9,
2016).

The  sub-theme (no. 16) entitled *“Organization as Communication:
(Dis)organizing through Texts, Artifacts and Other
Materialities**”* will be convened by Paul Leonardi, Tim Kuhn and
Consuelo Vasquez. As you will see from the Call for Papers this
sub-theme places a special focus on materiality and (dis)organizing.
This said, we also invite conceptual or empirical papers that more
generally apply a communication-centered or discursive lens to study
organizational phenomena.


We are very much looking forward to your submission (short paper, 3000
words) by _January 11, 2016._


Please find the full Call for Papers below – and via this website:
http://egosnet.org/jart/prj3/egos/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1434639284029&subtheme_id=1407070330957 




In case of any questions, please contact: (vasquez.consuelo /at/ uqam.ca)
<mailto:(vasquez.consuelo /at/ uqam.ca)>


With kind regards,

Paul, Tim and Consuelo


***PS:**For more information about our SWG:
http://egosnet.org/swgs/current_swgs/swg_16
——————


    Sub-theme 16: (SWG) Organization as Communication: (Dis)organizing
    through Texts, Artifacts and Other Materialities

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sub-theme is concerned with the fundamental, constitutive, and
formative role of communication for organizing and organizations
(including works that follow the "Communication Constitutes
Organization" or "CCO" perspective). One way to reflect on this
constitutive role of communication is to focus on the material dimension
of communication, as communicative practices become inscribed in texts,
artifacts, bodies, and sites (see Ashcraft et al., 2009). Since the
linguistic turn, scholars in organization studies who foreground
discourse and communication have been accused of ignoring the
physically-embodied bases of organizational reality. The issue is not
simply to reassert the importance of the non-discursive, but to
transcend the long-standing dualism between the symbolic and the
material dimension through novel perspectives on communication (ibid.).
This means treating communication and discourse as a constellation of
both intersubjectivity and interobjectivity (Latour, 1996; Orlikowski,
2007) and to focus on the co-constitutive entanglement between
materiality and social action (Barad, 2003; Leonardi et al., 2012).

In line with these considerations, this sub-theme proposes questioning
the (socio)material dimension of communication and its implications for
organizing and disorganizing: How is communication or discourse
materialized and thus contributes to the stabilization, transformation,
and dislocation of organizational phenomena? What particular types/forms
of materiality (e.g., texts, bodies, objects, or sites) are constitutive
of organization, and how do they take part in organizing? What are the
implications of (socio)material perspectives on communication for
organization and management studies and practices?

While questions regarding the entanglement of the symbolic and the
material are not new (see, e.g., Trist & Bamforth, 1951), extant
investigations have typically emphasized either the symbolic or the
material character of phenomena, thus (re)creating ontological dualisms
that limit their explanatory value. A focus on the constitutive role of
(socio) material communicative practices promises two benefits to these
bodies of work. First, by highlighting both the material and symbolic
dimensions of communication and discourse, analysts can trace the
'imbrication' that generates particular organizational forms and
processes (Leonardi, 2011). Second, by examining how bodies, texts,
artifacts, and sites (among others) contribute to complex and contingent
organizing practices – and not merely as drawn upon by human actors – we
can gain insight into the accomplishment of /both/ ordering and
disordering (Vasquez et al., forthcoming). Taking such a perspective
allows us to open the notions of discourse and communication to account
for organization as a heterogeneous site of conflicted (socio)material
practices (Kuhn, 2012).

We invite papers that question the symbolic-material dualism by drawing
on a communicational, narrative, and/or discursive lens on organization
and organizing. Papers should seek to explore the (dis)organizing
features of (socio)material practices of communication in particular,
and/or should aim to address the constitutive relations between
communication and organization more generally.


Below is a list of indicative, but not exhaustive, topics and questions
related to the sub-theme:

  * How does (socio)materiality participate in processes of organizing
    and/or disorganizing? How does sociomateriality constitute, maintain
    or change work routines and communication patterns? How does it
    disrupt and/or stabilize organization?
  * How can we study bodies, technology, artifacts, texts from
    communication-centered perspectives? What further categories of 'the
    material' (e.g., economic) need to be considered from this perspective?
  * What can be gained by switching from a focus on the ordering
    capacities to the disordering capacities of communication? How can
    (socio)material approaches help reveal disorder, tensions,
    contradictions, and paradoxes of communication and the constitutive
    role of these tensions for the communicative constitution of
    organizations and organizing?
  * What are the implications of a (socio)material approach to
    organizational communication and discourse for core topics of
    organization studies, such as , strategy, leadership, structure,
    change, or corporate responsibility?

  References

  * Ashcraft, K.L., Kuhn, T.R., & Cooren, F. (2009): "Constitutional
    Amendments: 'Materializing' Organizational Communication." /Academy
    of Management Annals,/ 3 (1), 1–64.
  * Barad, K. (2003): "Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an
    Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter." /Journal of Women in
    Culture and Society,/ 28 (3), 801–831.
  * Kuhn, T. (2012): "Negotiating the Micro–Macro Divide. Thought
    Leadership from Organizational Communication for Theorizing
    Organization." /Management Communication Quarterly,/ 26 (4), 543–584.
  * Latour, B. (1996): "On Interobjectivity." Mind, Culture, and
    Activity, 3 (4), 228–245.
  * Leonardi, P.M. (2011): "When Flexible Routines Meet Flexible
    Technologies: Affordance, Constraint, and the Imbrication of Human
    and Material Agencies." /MIS Quarterly,/ 35 (1), 147–167.
  * Leonardi, P.M., Nardi, B.A., & Kallinikos, J. (eds.) (2012):
    /Materiality and Organizing: Social Interaction in a Technological
    World./ Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  * Orlikowski, W. (2007): "Sociomaterial Practices: Exploring
    Technology at Work." /Organization Studies,/ 28 (9), 1435–1448.
  * Trist, E., & Bamforth, K. (1951): "Some Social and Psychological
    Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting." /Human
    Relations,/ 4 (1), 3–38.
  * Vásquez, C., Schoeneborn, D., & Sergi, V. (forthcoming): "Summoning
    the spirits: Exploring the (dis)ordering properties of
    organizational texts." /Human Relations/.doi:10.1177/0018726715589422



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