Marxist Studies of Organization

Living Fire

MARXIST STUDIES OF ORGANIZATION

A Special Themed Section on Marxist Studies of Organization has now been published in Organization Studies. Apologies for cross-posting.

 

Please find the five articles below, for your information:

 

When Organization Studies Turns to Societal Problems: The Contribution of Marxist Grand Theory

Matt Vidal, Paul Adler, and Rick Delbridge

 

Organizational Learning: Bringing the Forces of Production Back In

Jonas A. Ingvaldsen

 

Community and Innovation: From Tönnies to Marx

Paul S. Adler

 

Free Labour, Social Media, Management: Challenging Marxist Organization Studies

Armin Beverungen, Steffen Böhm, and Chris Land

 

Explaining Organizational Paths through the Concept of Hegemony: Evidence from the Italian Car Industry

Giuliano Maielli

 

First Published in http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/special-themed-section-on-marxism-in-organization-studies

 

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‘Human Herbs’ – a song by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski @ Academia: http://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

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Online Publications at The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

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Politics With and Through the Body: Presenting the Nanopolitcs Handbook

Nanopolitics

POLITICS WITH AND THROUGH THE BODY: PRESENTING THE NANOPOLITICS HANDBOOK

Wednesday March 5th @ 3-5PM, Room 5B.202, University of Essex
http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/news_and_seminars/seminarDetail.aspx?e_id=6275

The invention of new modes of sensibility is vital to enriching and sustaining political engagements, labours and lives in the situated contexts of urban collectivity. The nanopolitics handbook investigates the neoliberal city and workplace, the politics of crisis and austerity, precarious lives and modes of collaboration – through bodies and their encounters. Starting from the exploration of what bodies can do – with curiosity, courage and care – nanopolitics is a proposal for producing new collective subjectivations. Based on the experiments and experiences of the Nanopolitics Group, this book proposes exercises, concepts and ideas as little maps and machines for action. Drawing on social movements, grassroots organizing, dance, theatre and bodywork, the reflections and practices here present strategies for navigating and reconfiguring the playing field of ‘nanopolitics’, activating its entanglement with the major politics of our time. 

In this session the group will present the handbook, drawing on its texts and exercises.

Sponsored by the Centre for Work, Organization, and Society, this seminar is part of an ongoing workshop series on artist collectives.
For more information contact Stevphen Shukaitis: sshuka@essex.ac.uk
— 
Stevphen Shukaitis
Autonomedia Editorial Collective
http://www.autonomedia.org
http://www.minorcompositions.info
“Autonomy is not a fixed, essential state. Like gender, autonomy is created through its performance, by doing/becoming; it is a political practice. To become autonomous is to refuse authoritarian and compulsory cultures of separation and hierarchy through embodied practices of welcoming difference… Becoming autonomous is a political position for it thwarts the exclusions of proprietary knowledge and jealous hoarding of resources, and replaces the social and economic hierarchies on which these depend with a politics of skill exchange, welcome, and collaboration. Freely sharing these with others creates a common wealth of knowledge and power that subverts the domination and hegemony of the master’s rule.” – subRosa Collective

 

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‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Organizing for a Post-Growth Economy

Autonomia

ORGANIZING FOR THE POST-GROWTH ECONOMY

ephemera: theory & politics in organization

CALL FOR PAPERS: 15th February 2014: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/papers/EXTENDED_DEADLINE_ephemeraCFP_PostGrowth.pdf

Conference organizers: Ole Bjerg, Christian Garmann Johnsen, Bent Meier Sørensen and Lena Olaison

Conference date: 8-9 of May 2014

Conference venue: Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

 

Perpetual economic growth is an underlying assumption of the contemporary capitalist organization of society. The idea of growth is embedded not only in the corpus of economic thought but also in the institutions of the economy (Binswanger, 2013; Gorz, 2012). More recently, entrepreneurship, innovation and creativity have been seen as possible ways to solve the current economic and environmental crisis as well as to generate growth (Schaper, 2002). This is the case because entrepreneurship and innovation are portrayed as seeds of new initiatives and ideas that will boost economic development while simultaneously reduce its impact on the climate. Such a belief has produced new markets, such as carbon markets, and an emerging ‘climate capitalism’ (Böhm, Murtola and Spoelstra, 2012). At the heart of this logic is a faith in the individual economic actor, not least the entrepreneur, as a gifted individual with unique abilities (Shane, 2003). And it is evident that the current post-crisis discourse keeps its confidence in the emergent socially responsible economic actor who will contribute to the construction of a moral economy’ (Arvidsson, 2013).

This ephemera conference seeks to question the feasibility, moral legitimacy and sustainability of perpetual economic growth. Although contested, current political and popular beliefs tend to hold that the twin crises of economy and ecology are merely temporary, exceptional phenomena and that the global economy will soon bounce back to business as usual. However, others have suggested that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in the nature of capitalism (Heinberg, 2011). Instead of using our energies to prevent this shift from happening it may be more fruitful to appreciate the opportunities for reflection that are offered by the crisis. On the one hand, we should learn from history and see that the history of capitalism is indeed the history of revolutions. This suggests that we indeed may be at the brink of a new phase in society where we experience a change in the underlying structures. On the other hand, we can explore new forms of economic organization that do not rest upon the condition of growth (Schumacher, 1973; Latouche, 2009; Eisenstein, 2011). Even though the prerequisite of growth has been subjected to criticism within economic theory (Herrera, 2011), we need to further explore its implications. Taken together, the challenge is, in other words, to imagine what a sustainable post-growth economy might look like (Gorz, 1999; Seidl, 2010; Paech, 2012).

If growth is intrinsic to the current capitalist organization of society, then we need to ask to what extent it is possible to image a system that does not presuppose perpetual growth. Is economy without growth a contradiction in terms? We can approach the seeming paradox of the post-growth economy by rethinking fundamental economic concepts in today’s capitalist society. Since the value of growth seems to be deeply embedded in many of the most basic economic concepts used today, we therefore need to reconsider from the perspective of a post-growth economy: What is a market without growth? What is the role of entrepreneurship? And consumption? What would constitute organization and work? What is money? And most importantly of all, what is economic growth? These questions may be approached theoretically by analysing their implicit assumptions connected with the paradigm of growth-oriented capitalism (e.g. Daly, 1996), or they may be explored empirically by studying actual practices of alternative economic organization (e.g. North, 2010), such as, for example, slow food movements and direct trade.

The aim of a conference on a post-growth economy is not solely or even primarily to produce new knowledge but instead to think about what to do with the knowledge that we already have. Certainly, the problem of growth is nothing new. Since at least the end of the 1960s, it has been known that the expansion of the capitalist economy would eventually run up against the natural boundaries of earth (Carson, 2000; Measows et al., 1972; Georgescu-Roegen, 1971). The most pressing problem today with regards to sustainability is not that we do not know what to do; rather, the problem is that even though we know very well what to do, we are still not doing it. In other words, we know very know that current level of pollution caused by fossil fuels is not sustainable from a long-term point of view. Yet, by maintaining the current level of production and consumption, we behave as if it is. There is therefore an aspect of cynicism, in Sloterdijk’s sense of the term, which needs to be addressed in relation to sustainability and contemporary capitalism.

The ambition of this conference is thus to bring together researchers, practitioners and activists who share an interest in the issue of economic growth and sustainability. We particularly welcome submissions that explore the paradoxes of a post-growth economy and the interrelated themes of sustainability and entrepreneurship, alongside an exploration of the cultural and political context out of which they have emerged.

 

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

* What is post-growth economy?

* What would count as work in a post-growth economy?

* What should management be like in a post-growth economy?

* What is the role of entrepreneurship in a post-growth economy?

* What constitute organization in a post-growth economy?

* What is the role of finance and debt in a post-growth economy?

* What would consumption be like in a post-growth economy?

 

Deadlines, conference fee and further information

The conference takes place at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, 8-9 of May 2014. The conference is organized by the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy. The conference is associated with the Sustainability platform and the Entrepreneurship platform at CBS.

The extended deadline for submitting abstracts is 15 February 2014. The abstracts, of no more than 500 words, should be submitted in the format of a Word document to the mail address: postgrowth2014 AT gmail.com. ephemera encourages contributions in a variety of formats including articles, notes, interviews, book reviews, photo essays and other experimental modes of representation. The conference fee has not been set yet, as it is dependent on the number of participants, but will be kept to a minimum, approximately €100. PhD candidates pay a reduced fee, most likely €50. Further information about the conference can be found on the conference website: http://www.ephemerajournal.org. If you have any queries, you can also contact one of the conference organizers: Ole Bjerg (ob.mpp AT cbs.dk), Christian Garmann Johnsen (cgj.mpp AT cbs.dk), Bent Meier Sørensen (bem.mpp AT cbs.dk), Lena Olaison (lo.mpp AT cbs.dk). Conference participants are encouraged to submit their contributions to the Special Issue on Post-growth economy in ephemera that will be published 2015.

 

References

Arvidsson, A. (2013) ‘The potential of consumer publics’, ephemera, 13(2): 367-391.
Binswanger, H.C. (2013) Die Wachstumsspirale: Geld, Energie und Imagination in der Dynamik des Marktprozesses. Marburg: Metropolis-Verlag.
Böhm, S., AM Murtola and S. Spoelstra (2012 eds.) ‘The atmosphere business’, ephemera, 12(1/2): 1-11.
Carson, R. (2000) Silent Spring. London: Penguin.
Daly, H. (1996) Beyond growth: The economics of sustainable development. Boston: Beacon Press.
Eisenstein, C. (2011) Sacred economics: Money, gift, & society in the age of transition. Berkeley, Calif.: Evolver Editions.
Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1971) The entropy law and the economic process. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Gorz, A. (1999) Reclaiming work: Beyond the wage-based society. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity Pressl.
Gorz, A. (2012) Capitalism, socialism, ecology. New York: Verso.
Heinberg, R. (2011) The end of growth: Adapting to our new economic reality. Forest Row: Clairview.
Herrera, R. (2011) ’A critique of mainstream growth theory: Ways out of the neoclassical science (-fiction) and toward marxism’, in P. Zarembka and R. Desai (eds.) Revitalizing marxist theory for today’s capitalism (research in political economy, Vol 27). Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Latouche, S. (2009) Farewell to growth. Cambridge, MA: Polity.
Measows, D., H. Meadows, D.L. Meadows, J. Randers and W.W. Behrens III (1972) The limits to growth: A report for THE CLUB OF ROME’S project on the predicament of mankind. New York: Universe Books.
North, P. (2010) Local money: How to make it happen in your community. Totnes: Transition Books.
Paech, N. (2012) Befreiung vom Überfluss: auf dem Weg in die Postwachstumsökonomie. München: oekom verlag.
Schumacher, E.F. (1973) Small is beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered. London: Vintage.
Shane, S. (2003) A general theory of entrepreneurship. The individual-opportunity nexus, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Seidl, I. (2010) Postwachstumsgesellschaft: neue Konzepte für die Zukunft. Marburg: Metropolis.

 

Website: http://www.ephemerajournal.org/content/organizing-post-growth-economy

 

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‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

The New Left Book Club: https://rikowski.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/the-new-left-book-club-call-for-papers/

Glenn Rikowski at Academia: https://independent.academia.edu/GlennRikowski

Toward A Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization – by Eugene Gogol

Dialectics

TOWARD A DIALECTIC OF PHILOSOPHY AND ORGANIZATION – BY EUGENE GOGOL

Just off the press from Brill — Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization, by Eugene Gogol 

Toward a Dialectic of Philosophy and Organization is an exploration of Hegel’s dialectic and its radical re-creation in Marx’s thought within the context of revolutions and revolutionary organizations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Does a dialectic in philosophy itself bring forth a dialectic in revolutionary organization? This question is explored via organizational practices in the Paris Commune, the 2nd International, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the Spanish Revolution of 1936-37 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, as well as the theoretical-organizational concepts of such thinkers as Lassalle, Lenin, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Pannekoek.

“What Philosophic-Organizational Vantage Point Is Needed for Revolutionary Transformation Today?” is examined by engaging the theoretical arguments of a number of thinkers. Among them: Adorno, Dunayevskaya, Hardt and Negri, Holloway, Lebowitz, Lukcás, Mészáros and Postone.

Table of contents

Introduction: Philosophy, Organization, and the Work of Raya Dunayevskaya
Prologue: The Dialectic in Philosophy Itself

PART I: ON SPONTANEOUS FORMS OF ORGANIZATION VS. VANGUARD PARTIES
1: Marx’s Concept of Organization: From the Silesian Weavers’ Uprising to the First Years of the International Workingmen’s Association
2: The Commune of Paris, 1871: Mass Spontaneity in Action and Thought; Responsibility of the Revolutionary Intellectual: The Two-War Road Between Marx and the Commune
3: The Second International, The German Social Democracy, and Engels after Marx—Organization without Marx’s Organization of Thought
4: The 1905 Russian Revolution: Mass Proletarian Self-Activity and Its Relation to the Organizational Thought of Marxist Revolutionaries
5: The Russian Revolution of 1917 and Beyond
6: Out of the Russia Revolution: Legacy and Critique—Luxemburg, Pannekoek, Trotsky
7: Organizational Forms from the Spanish Revolution
8: The Hungarian Workers’ Councils in the Revolution: A Movement from Practice that Is a Form of Theory 

PART II: HEGEL AND MARX
9: Can “Absolute Knowing” in Hegel’s Phenomenology Speak to a Dialectic of Organization and Philosophy?
10: Rereading Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Program Today

PART III: HEGEL AND LENIN
11: Lenin and Hegel—The Profound Philosophic Breakthrough that Failed to Encompass Revolutionary Organization
12: Hegel’s Critique of the Third Attitude to Objectivity—Its Relation to Organization

PART IV: DIALECTICS OF ORGANIZATION AND PHILOSOPHY IN POST-WORLD WAR II WORLD: THE WORK OF RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA
13: Moments in the Development of Dunayevskaya’s Marxist-Humanism

PART V: CONCLUSION
14: What Philosophic-Organizational Vantage Point Is Needed?

Bibliograhy
Index

Originally published: http://www.historicalmaterialism.org/news/distributed/new-from-brill-toward-a-dialectic-of-philosophy-and-organization-by-eugene-gogol

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‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowsk

Essex Seminars on Capitalism and the Social

Communisation

ESSEX SEMINARS ON CAPITALISM AND THE SOCIAL

Here  is information on two upcoming seminars at the University of Essex Centre for Work, Organization, and Society.

18/6 Seminar on Revaluing the Social in Contemporary Capitalism
Monday June 18th, 2012 @ 3PM
University of Essex Room 4SB.5.3
Centre for Work, Organization and Society (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/research/emc)

Seminar presentations by: Jason Read (University of Southern Maine) / George Tsogas (Cass, City University) / Stevphen Shukaitis (University of Essex)

Abstracts
General Relations: Transindividuality from Ontology to a Non-Economic Critique of Political Economy
Jason Read (University of Southern Maine)

In the Grundrisse Marx writes “Only in the eighteenth century, in ‘civil society,’ do the various forms of social connectedness confront the individual as a mere means towards his private purposes, as external necessity. But the epoch which produces this standpoint, that of the isolated individual, is also precisely that of the hitherto must developed social (from this standpoint, general) relations.” The contradiction Marx grasped between the increased interconnectedness of economic production and social isolation has only deepened into the twenty-first century: it is the era of commons, of digital connections, but also the era of neoliberal individuation, isolation, and precarious fragmentation. How then to make sense of an era of connection and isolation. I argue that the concept, or rather the problem, of transindividuation, makes possible a conflictual understanding of the genesis of both individuals and social relations. I say problem, or problematic, rather than concept, because transindividuality needs to be grasped in its broadest sense as an ontology of relations (Simondon, Spinoza); a critique of political economy (Marx, Virno, Stiegler); and a constitution of political subjectivity (Balibar, Negri). It is by thinking the interrelation of the ontology, economy, and political that we can think the constitution and transformation of the present.

Cognitive capitalism, organization, and the labour theory of value
George Tsogas (Cass) & Stevphen Shukaitis (Essex)

We address the reasons and methods for renewing a transfusion of ideas between Marxism and organisation and management theorising. We put forward a dialectical approach to the search for O&M theories, by stepping outside disciplinary confines. The Marxian labour theory of value is put forward as the territory for such synthetical exchange to commence. For that task, we make the most of the autonomist Marxist tradition, inasmuch as it offers us a coherent explanation of the social foundations of post-Fordist, contemporary (cognitive) capitalism. We question the contemporary significance and relevance of the Marxian labour theory of value, in an era of deep capitalist crisis, and reach the assertion of the negation of value creation in cognitive capitalism: consumption precedes production and creates – rather than destroys – value. Our aim is to bring to the forefront of O&M theoretical enquiry fundamental questions on the nature of labour, exchange relations and forces of production in contemporary, cognitive capitalism.

26/6 Seminar: Rise of the Flashpublics
Tuesday June 26th, 2012 @ 4PM
University of Essex Room LTB4
Centre for Work, Organization and Society (http://www.essex.ac.uk/ebs/research/emc)

Rise of the Flashpublics: State-friended Social Media, User-Generated Discontent, and the Affective Transfer

This presentation examines recent entanglements of social media and political dissent to explore mutations in network sovereignty. Using a number of recent examples (including the US State Department organized Alliance of Youth Movements, the uprisings in Iran and Egypt, KONY 2012, Occupy Wall Street, and the US police networks), it argues that we are witnessing a convergence of sovereign and network powers, one that expresses new modes of control while setting the conditions for new forms of evaluation and antagonism. Network alliances and coalitions have become key actors in constructing a public (now as “State-friended” movements) and dissuading dissent movements (“State-enemied” ones). More specifically, counter-radicalization can take place via creating what I call flashpublics (quickly mobilized networked alliances that distract and prevent other emergent networks). At the same time, these coalitions depend on social media spectators/participants, which are affective transfer points that exceed network capture.

Bio: Jack Z. Bratich is associate professor and department chair of Journalism and Media Studies atRutgersUniversity. He is author of Conspiracy Panics: Political Rationality and Popular Culture (2008) and coeditor, along with Jeremy Packer and Cameron McCarthy, Foucault, Cultural Studies, and Governmentality (2003). His work applies autonomist social theory to such topics as audience studies, social media, and the cultural politics of secrecy. He is a zine librarian at ABC No Rio inNew York City.

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

The Long Duree of the Far Right

 

Aesthetics

THE LONG DURÉE OF THE FAR RIGHT

The Longue Durée of the Far Right: Ideology, Organization, State Formation and International Relations

October 2012 (Queen Mary, University of London)

 

Call for Papers

The (re)emergence of far-right parties and social movements in various parts of the world – and particularly in Europe – in recent years has been widely discussed in the press and in academic commentary. In contrast to their ‘revolutionary’ bedfellows on the communist left, since the end of the Cold War far-right parties have come to form a significant and disturbing part of the political geography in a number of countries. Whilst their influence has been uneven – from participating in governing coalitions in Western Europe (the Austrian Freedom Party and the Italian Lega Nord) and in India (the Bharatiya Janata Party) to spawning a violent Islamophobic street movement (the English Defence League in the UK), to forming a major component of anti-imperialist movements across much of the Islamic world – their general appearance across time and space suggests that the current era is comparable to the earlier historical conjunctures of far-right mobilization in the late nineteenth century and inter-war periods. The varied forms of far-right have combined with their contrasting ideological dimensions, which has made the taxonomy of far-right something of an academic industry in itself. In particular, the far-right has come to be divided over its ‘post-fascist’ rhetorical commitment to (liberal) democracy as opposed to an authoritarian and demagogic populism and also between a neo-fascist commitment to a statist and protectionist model of capitalism and an embrace of much of the policy formulas of neo-liberalism by some strands of the contemporary far-right.

These developments raise a number of analytical and political questions. How distinct are these contemporary manifestations of the far-right compared to the previous historical forms of the far-right? How analytically useful is the concept of fascism in describing the generic far-right? What are the social bases of the far-right – past and present? Which methodological framework provides the most useful analytical tool to examine and understand the far-right? What of the relationship between the evolving dynamics of uneven capitalist development and geopolitical order on the determination of far-right movements – historical and contemporary?

The aim of this workshop is to promote an inter-disciplinary engagement with these issues through bringing together scholars from a range of different subject areas (IR, IPE, Geography, History, Sociology, Comparative Politics and Political Theory) to re-think the linkages between the historical, sociological and international dimensions of the far-right – as ideology, movement and state – over the longue durée from its emergence as a distinct and modern form of politics in the late nineteenth century to its more recent re-emergence in their intertwining local, national and international contexts.

Possible themes for consideration, but not limited to:

Comparative historical case studies of far-right movements and states

Analytical issues of comparisons and comparative methodologies

International relations of fascist state formation processes

Far-right movements in colonial and post-colonial contexts

Evolving class and social compositions of the far-right

Political economies of fascist states

Distinctions and relations between ideologies, movements and states

Geopolitical ordering and far-right movements and states – imperial, Cold War and post-Cold War eras

Capitalist development, uneven, combined or  otherwise and conjunctures of crisis on processes of far-right emergence, evolution and transformation

Geographical and spatial variations in the far-right – urban/rural, local/national, north/south

Aesthetic representations in architecture, art and culture

Racialized conceptions of space and territoriality in ideologies and state practices

 

Please send proposals (of no more than 500 words), along with biographical and institutional information to Rick Saull (r.g.saull@qmul.ac.uk) or Alex Anievas

(alexander.anievas@st-annes.ox.ac.uk) by June 4, 2012

 

**END**

 

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Occupy and the Politics of Organizing

Occupy

OCCUPY AND THE POLITICS OF ORGANIZING

Warwick Organisation Theory Network Dayschool
Occupy and the Politics of Organizing

‘We are the 99%. This is what democracy looks like. Come and join us.’

Wednesday 21th March 2011, 11.00 pm to 5.00 pm
Warwick Business School, Scarman Road,
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Contemporary protest movements are claiming that they prefigure a new kind of politics – decentralised, anti-hierarchical and multiple in their demands. For those who have assumed that democracy can only operate through parties and representatives, this is a considerable challenge. More generally, Occupy provokes us to reconsider questions of organization itself. Might it be that the means of organizing are just as important as the ends? Could this be a moment when choices about how ‘we’ organize ourselves become political in themselves? In this dayschool, academics and activists will discuss and debate these questions, as well as attempting to provide a space for considering how the university might respond to Occupy.

A more detailed programme will be circulated once we have confirmed speakers from Occupy, as well as academics from Warwick and elsewhere who will respond to the theoretical and practical issues which the Occupy and associated movements raise.

Refreshments will be provided, and there is no charge for attendance.
The dayschool is being sponsored by Organization: The Critical Journal of Organization, Theory and Society.

To register a place, email Racheal.Monnington@wbs.ac.uk. For other queries contact  m.parker@warwick.ac.uk, or Juliane.Reinecke@wbs.ac.uk

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‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

The Politics of Consumption – An ‘Ephemera’ Conference

Politics of Consumption

THE POLITICS OF CONSUMPTION – AN EPHEMERA CONFERENCE

Dublin, Ireland, 9-11 May, 2012.

Ephemera: theory & politics in organization: http://www.ephemeraweb.org/

This conference explores the relationships between consumption, accumulation, production, reproduction and politics today. Taking the apparent generalisation of conditions of austerity as an opportunity to re-visit longer ongoing debates surrounding the extra-economic nature of commodity consumption, and its complex relationship to commodity production, the conference asks whether traditional conceptualisations of the politics of consumption require revision. What empirical developments have become crucial? What theories remain helpful? What political mobilisations have become inevitable?

The conference gathers together leading figures for the sake of debating and contesting such issues. The conference also forms the basis of a special issue of ephemera: theory and politics in organization – please read the call for papers for more information.

Venue and getting there
The conference will take place at the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 63 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 (see Google Map). Conveniently located at the heart of Georgian Dublin, this is a fitting venue for the conference theme, both because Ireland has taken centre stage within contemporary debates concerning compulsive excessiveness and retributive austerity, and also by virtue of the fact that cultural and historical nationalism has become a principal foundation of the contemporary politics of consumption. Visit the Society’s website for more information (http://www.rsai.ie/index.cfm).

Dublin’s City Centre is a 30-45 minute bus ride from Dublinairport. The easiest way of getting there is to take the 747 bus to the city centre (€6): alternative routes exist, some cheaper, others more expensive. The conference venue is about a five minute walk from famous central landmarks such as Trinity College Dublin and St Stephen’s Green. The nearest DART stations to the venue are Pearse Streetand Grand Canal Dock – the area is also well served by a variety of Dublin Bus Services. Further details can be found at http://www.dart.ie (Trains) and http://www.dublinbus.ie (Buses).

Submission deadline
The special issue deadline is on or before the 30th of November, 2011, and has already been widely publicised. Conference submissions are to be received before the 23rd of January, 2012. On time of submission, please be clear whether you would like your work to be considered for inclusion in the special issue, the conference, or both.

Conference fee
Fees will be determined in the New Year. The intention is to maintain keep costs as close to free as possible, as has been the case with previous ephemera conferences. If fees are required, attendees can expect these not to exceed £100. Non wage-earners can expect to be exempt from fees.

Further information
For queries, you can contact one of the conference organizers:

Alan Bradshaw (a.bradshaw@rhul.ac.uk)
Norah Campbell (ncampbe@tcd.ie)
Stephen Dunne (s.dunne@le.ac.uk)

 

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Marxist Studies of Organization

Karl Marx

MARXIST STUDIES OF ORGANIZATION

EGOS Colloquium
July 5-7, 2012, Helsinki
Sub-theme on Marxist Studies of Organization: The Challenges of Design

Convenors:
Paul Adler, University of Southern California, USA, padler@usc.edu
Rick Delbridge, Cardiff Business School, UK, delbridger@CARDIFF.AC.UK
Matt Vidal, King’s College London, UK, mgvidal@gmail.com

The goal of this sub-theme is to build on the success of the first two EGOS Marxist studies sub-themes in 2010 and 2011 in bringing together people who share an interest in building on Marx’s ideas to advance organization studies, and in particular to advance our understanding of design. We are not dogmatic in an attachment to any specific kind of Marxism — all kinds are welcome. We come together to advance organizational scholarship inspired by Marx’s historical, materialist, dialectical, and critical-realist writing. Papers in this stream have examined a range of organizational issues, deploying and building on concepts such as forces and relations of production, managerial control and worker resistance, valorization and socialization, ideology and hegemony, contradiction and fetishism, absolute and relative surplus value, and regulation and crisis.

The theme of the 2012 Colloquium is “Design!?” This theme is particularly congenial to Marxist approaches, since Marx offers a fruitful starting point for understanding the distinctive features of tacit-knowledge-intensive product/process design activities, for critiquing the currently dominant organization designs, and for proposing alternative designs for social institutions at both micro and macro levels. In this context, we invite papers that address debates among different varieties of Marxist theory and between Marxist and other theoretical currents.

The 2012 Colloquium organizers have highlighted several topics under the broad theme of “Design!?” and we encourage submissions to our sub-theme that offer a Marxist approach to any of them:

– Institutions, industries and organizations: Marx and other writers in the tradition he inspired offer fruitful starting points for analyzing the distinctive features of design activities and how they are or could be organized. We encourage papers that explore the nature of use-value/exchange-value relations in the creative industries and papers that explore the relations between private accumulation and public policies in shaping the evolution of those industries.

– Organizing and managing: Marxist theory offers a powerful theoretical framework for understanding the tensions between the creative labor process and the exploitative valorization process. We welcome papers that build on that theoretical base and use it to study what is happening today in the organization and management of design activities, and more generally in the domain of what is called ‘knowledge work.’ Some of that creative design labor happens outside the capitalist firm (unpaid networks, NGOs, artistic communities): we welcome Marxist studies of these other settings and on the interrelations between them and the capitalist sector.

– Power and identities: Marxist social theory is a fruitful starting point for understanding some key forms of power and for characterizing both cooperation and conflict within and between capitalist enterprises as well between these enterprises and other social actors. And Marxist social psychology is a fruitful starting point for understanding the introjection of social structures and the formation of social identities. We welcome papers that build on or contribute to Marxist theory of power and identity in the context of design activities both within and beyond capitalist firms.

Over the previous two years, this EGOS sub-theme has become a gathering point for organizational scholars working with Marxist ideas. So we invite Marxist submissions on any of these topics, and we also encourage contributions on any of the other dimensions of organization studies where a Marxist approach might be fruitful.

In selecting papers, the conveners will give priority to those that either (a) enrich our understanding of the empirical world of organizations based on strong Marxist theoretical foundations, or (b) enrich Marxist theory in a way that promises deeper understanding of that world.

The deadline for “short paper submission” is January 16, 2012. While the overall EGOS call asks for short papers under 3000 words, this sub-theme encourages longer submissions so we can better assess the fit with our program. If the “short paper” is accepted by the conveners, the full paper will need to be posted on the Colloquium website by May 31.

Paul Adler: http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~padler/
Rick Delbridge: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/carbs/faculty/delbridger/index.html
Matt Vidal: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/management/people/academic/vidal.aspx

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Work, work, work

WORK ORGANISATION, LABOUR AND GLOBALISATION

 

 Volume 3 No 1 of ‘Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation’ is now available and is entitled ‘Working at the Interface: call-centre labour in a global economy’

Call centres illustrate the consequences of globalisation for labour perhaps more clearly than any other form of employment. Call-centre workers sit at the interface between the global and the local, having to transcend the limitations of local time zones, cultures and speech patterns. They are also at the interface between companies and their customers, having to absorb the impact of anger, incomprehension, confusion and racist abuse whilst still meeting exacting productivity targets and staying calm and friendly.

Finally, they take the brunt of the conflict at the contested interface between production and consumption, having to deal in their personal lives with the conflicts between the demands of paid and unpaid work. Drawing, amongst others, on organisational theory, sociology, communications studies, industrial relations, economic geography, gender theory and political economy, this important collection brings together survey evidence from around the world with case studies and vivid first-hand accounts of life in call centres from Asia, North and South America, Western and Eastern Europe. In the process it reveals many similarities but also demonstrates that national industrial relations traditions and workers’ ability to negotiate can make a significant difference to the quality of working life in call  centres.

Contributors include:
Ursula Holtgrewe, Jessica Longen, Hannelore Mottweiler, Annika Schönauer, Premilla D’Cruz, Ernesto Noronha, Simone Wolff, Claudia Mazzei Nogueira, Enda Brophy, Norene Pupo, Andrea Noack, Pia Bramming, Ole H. Sørensen, Peter Hasle, Päivi Korvajärvi, Vassil Kirov, Kapka Mircheva, and Ursula Huws.
____________

Available in print and online
Read free taster article online at: http://analytica.metapress.com/content/c72128810j7357u3/fulltext.pdf

Order in book form from: http://www.merlinpress.co.uk/acatalog/WORKING_AT_THE_INTERFACE.html

For further information go to http://www.analyticapublications.co.uk

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