***APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING***
Dear all,
The EGOS Standing Working Group (SWG) No. 05 "Organization as Communication" (formerly SWG No. 16; more info: http://www.egosnet.org/swgs/current_swgs/swg_16) is happy to announce the sub-theme for the EGOS 2017 Colloquium in Copenhagen, Denmark (July 6-8, 2017).
The sub-theme No. 05 entitled "The Communicative Constitution of Organizing: Toward and Beyond (Formal) Organization" will be facilitated by Dennis Schoeneborn, Timothy R. Kuhn, and James R. Barker.
As you will see in the Call for Papers (copied below – or see here: http://www.egosnet.org/jart/prj3/egos/main.jart?rel=de&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1442567999321&subtheme_id=1442568081655), the sub-theme places a special focus on the formative and constitutive role of communication for practices of organizing that occur toward and beyond formal organization. That said, we also invite conceptual or empirical papers that more generally apply a communication-centered or discursive lens to study organizational phenomena of various kinds.
We are looking forward to receiving your short paper submissions (max. 3,000 words) by Jan. 9th, 2017 via the EGOS website: www.egosnet.org!
In case of any questions, please contact Dennis via email: dsc.ikl@cbs.dk.
With kind regards,
Dennis, Tim & Jim
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EGOS 2017 in Copenhagen (Denmark), July 6-8, 2017
Sub-theme No. 05: The Communicative Constitution of Organizing: Toward and Beyond (Formal) Organization
Convenors
· Dennis Schoeneborn, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, dsc.ikl@cbs.dk
· Timothy R. Kuhn, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, tim.kuhn@colorado.edu
· James R. Barker, Dalhousie University, Canada, j.barker@dal.ca
Please submit your short papers (max. 3,000 words, incl. references) by Jan. 9th, 2017 via: www.egosnet.org.
Call for Papers
In recent years, organizational scholarship has increasingly focused on communication, discourse, and narratives for explaining the conduct of organizing. One line of work within this larger stream of research is focused on the "communicative constitution of organization" (CCO) – see also the description of the EGOS Standing Working Group (SWG) no. 5 (formerly no. 16): Organization as Communication. From this viewpoint, practices of organizing and organizational phenomena are instantiated, maintained, and transformed primarily in and through communication (e.g., Ashcraft et al., 2009).
One first outgrowth of a constitutive perspective is that it probes the ontological foundations of organization theory: What is an organization if its existence is communicative in character (see also Nicotera, 2013)? To imagine organization as communication implies that the persistence of (even well-established and formal) organizations is inherently precarious, since the communicative connections that constitute organization can be considered as perpetually open to (re)negotiation. In the same line of thinking, organizations are presumed to depend fundamentally on their embeddedness in communicative relations with external constituents to maintain their status and mutual recognition as organizational entities and actors (Christensen et al., 2013; Kuhn, 2008).
A second focus of a constitutive perspective is to comprehend communication as organization (see also Bennett & Segerberg, 2012). Accordingly, organizing is understood here as something that can occur also beyond the boundaries of formal organizations (see also Ahrne & Brunsson, 2011; Ahrne et al., 2016) and as a segment of a more expansive social practice, that is, communication. In this view, organization and organizing can also emerge instantaneously, ephemerally, and wherever humans (and/or non-humans) interact (see also the notion of the "organizing properties of communication" by Cooren, 2000). Thus, by asking what is it that makes communication organizational (Taylor & Cooren, 1997), a constitutive perspective lends itself in particular to grasping the communicative dynamics underlying alternative, fluid, and peripheral phenomena of organizing, as well (see Dobusch & Schoeneborn, 2015).
However, the majority of existing research drawing on a constitutive perspective can be criticized for studying primarily formal, established exemplars of organizations. Therefore, in this sub-theme, we aim to further advance and widen the spectrum of communication-centered perspectives in organization studies by exploring the role of communication in constituting practices of organizing that occur toward and beyond formal organization (e.g., inter-organizational networks, cross-sector partnerships, industry standards and certifications, social movements, open source communities, crowdfunding, high-frequency trading, etc.). In this widened view, communication becomes the site at which encompassing changes in socio-economic life are located or captured by terms like "communicative capitalism" (Dean, 2009), "communicative institutionalism" (Cornelissen et al., 2015), or "communicative labor" (Arvidsson, 2010; Greene, 2004).
To conclude, in this sub-theme, we invite papers that are either concerned with studying organization and organizing from a communication-centered lens more generally – or that address the more particular focus of the sub-theme, that is, by conceiving of the constitutive relation between communication and organization/organizing in expansive terms. This can be done, for instance, by exploring the communicative constitution of organizing practices that emerge beyond formal organizations – or, in turn, by examining how formal organizations are affected by such practices. As a special feature, the sub-theme is planned to host a panel debate that involves main proponents of both the "organization as communication" view (e.g., François Cooren, Université de Montréal) and the "communication as organization" view (e.g., Lance Bennett, University of Washington).
Below is a list of indicative, but not exhaustive, topics and questions related to the sub-theme:
- How can previously partly separate academic debates on "organization as communication" (e.g., from a CCO perspective) or "communication as organization" (e.g., Bennett & Segerberg, 2012) be set in closer interconnection?
- What does the idea of "communication as organization" (i.e. that organization can emerge instantaneously as a "side-effect" of ongoing interactions) imply for ontological considerations on what an organization is?
- What can be gained by theorizing various social phenomena (e.g., crowds, networks, communities, markets, families, etc.) through an "organization as communication" and/or "communication as organization" lens?
- How might processes of branding – as a mode of value creation in contemporary capitalism with complex and ambiguous connections to formal organizations – extend and alter conceptions of communicating and organizing (see Mumby, in press)?
- What is the role of non-human entities (e.g., texts, tools, technologies, or other artifacts) in facilitating and shaping the communicative constitution of organization and organizing?
- When considering organization to be a segment of communication as a larger social practice, what are the political and ethical implications of this assumption (see also Cooren, 2016), including considerations on how to govern "good" organization and organizing?
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Prof. Dr. Dennis Schoeneborn
Copenhagen Business School
Dept. of Intercultural Communication and Management
CBS Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (cbsCSR)
Porcelænshaven 18A
2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark
Phone: +45-3815-4225
Mobile: +45-5039-6953
Email: dsc.ikl@cbs.dk
Website: http://www.cbs.dk/en/staff/dscikl
Visit our "Organization as Communication" (OaC) blog: http://www.orgcom.org
Visit our "Business of Society" (BOS) blog: http://blog.cbs.dk/bos/