25th Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism
1-4 July 2007, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Call for Papers
SIGNS OF THE FUTURE: MANAGEMENT, MESSIANISM,
CATASTROPHE
Today the future seems both more promising and more
perilous than ever
before.
What will the future look like, and by what signs will
we know it?
How are we organizing for the future, and how might we
plan for
different
futures of culture and organization? After various
attempts to bring
history to
an end, today we again sense a mood of possibility.
There is, it would
seem, a
future for the future. What will that future hold?
Victor Hugo writes: 'For what tomorrow will be, no one
knows'. This
kind of
remark might seem a poetic extravagance when faced
with the need to
plan and to
organise for the future. Any practical person knows
that in order to
bring about
our plans we must organise gradually and methodically,
paying due care
and
attention to the demands of time. But at the same
time, we sense that
the more
routinized our planning for the future, the less
likely that the
future will be
particularly surprising. In this way, maybe the last
thing that any
manager
wants is to come face to face with the future.
The future often appears today in the popular
imagination as complete
system
failure or global ecological catastrophe. The end of
the world is now
no longer
a religious problem, but something of immediate
concern to
policymakers and
newspaper readers. If the future involves increasingly
unmanageable
waves of
risk, out of this crisis emerges the possibility of a
different
future, the
promise of a future as radically different.
If we learned from the twentieth century the dangers
of eschatological
promises
of a perfect future, today we sense both the peril of
those promises
and at the
same time the catastrophe that the future will bring
if we remain on
our current
course. The theme of the future therefore asks
profound questions about
alternative futures. If these no longer appear in the
form of Utopia,
they do
however imply the impossibility of refusing messianism
and hope. Hence
the
prospect of speaking, following Jacques Derrida, of a
'messianicity
without
messianism' and a future that is forever to-come.
Writing in the spring of 1940, Walter Benjamin offered
the image of
Angelus
Novus, which looks back at the past and sees 'one
single catastrophe
which
keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage' ('Theses on the
Philosophy of
History').
But what if the angel looked over its shoulder to
glimpse the signs of
the
future? If the angel could read those signs of the
future, would it
stop, would
it shudder, would it take flight?
Contributions are invited that consider any aspects of
the future of
work,
culture and organization, and some indicative topics
follow:
a.. Visions of the future: utopias, dystopias, brave
new worlds
b.. The future of the economy: prospects for
capitalism and the state
c.. Trading on the future: futures market and their
philosophical
grounds
d.. Spectacle and speculation
e.. Prediction, anticipation, planning
f.. Interruption and discontinuity
g.. Attempts to create new worlds: 'Another world is
possible' (The
World
Social Forum)
h.. Mourning, loss, trauma
i.. Memory, nostalgia and the relation to the past:
the 'future
within the
present' and the celebration of the past in the name
of the future
j.. Responsibility, promise, justice
k.. Mastering the future: chaos and control
l.. Managing risk and event
m.. Planetary futures: the rise of new economic and
cultural
superpowers
n.. Pensions funds, saving for the future
o.. The end of work, the endlessness of work
p.. The future of nature: ecological sustainability,
environmental
catastrophe
q.. Responsibilities for not yet born others
r.. The future of diversity, gender and difference
s.. The future of communication: new media
technologies, the end of
the book
t.. The future of the academy: the business school
of tomorrow
u.. Cyborgs and other hybrid bodies
v.. Fictions of the future: science and fantasy
w.. Accessing the future: futurology, divination,
sacrifice
x.. Concepts of time past, present and future
y.. The 'now', the out of joint and the untimely
z.. The future of the sign: asignifying practices
and the war
against the
signifier
This list is intended to be indicative only. We
actively encourage
innovative
takes on the conference theme, as well as those that
focus on more
than one of
the above areas. With its long tradition of
inter-disciplinary
reflections,
SCOS encourages papers that draw insights and
approaches from across a
range of
disciplines. In addition to scholars working in
management and
organization
studies we welcome contributions from anthropology,
sociology,
philosophy,
politics, art history, communication, film and gender
studies.
Contributions
can be theoretical, empirical or methodological, but
should address
their
subject matter in a critical and rigorous fashion.
Workshops
We also welcome suggestions for workshops,
performances or events.
Outlines of
proposed workshops should be the same length as a
paper abstract and
should
clearly indicate the resources needed, the number of
participants, the
time
required, the approach to be taken and the session's
objectives.
Open stream
An open stream at SCOS XXV will facilitate interesting
presentations
of recent
developments in research on organizational culture and
symbolism that
do not
connect directly to the conference theme. Papers are
therefore invited
on any
aspect of theory, methodology, fieldwork or practice
that is of
continuing
interest to the SCOS community. If submitting to the
open stream,
please
indicate this clearly on your abstract.
Venue
SCOS 2007 will be held at Ljubljana, capital of
Slovenia. Situated to
the east
of Italy and south of Austria, Slovenia is one of the
most beautiful
countries
in Southeastern Europe. The capital, Ljubljana, with
its walled
river, castle
and outdoor cafés, is a beautiful miniature of Prague.
Daily sessions will take place at the Faculty of
Economics at the
University of
Ljubljana, a large university situated 2 miles from
the centre of
Ljubljana.
Accommodation will be in hotels, a choice of which
will be provided to
delegates, at a range of prices and locations, and at
negotiated
conference
prices. Social events, receptions and meals will be
held around the
city, and
we hope to hold the conference dinner at Ljubljana
castle.
For more information about conference events visit
www.scos.org, and
for
information about Ljubljana,
www.ljubljana.si/en
Organizing Committee
Working in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics
at the
University of
Ljubljana, SCOS 2007 is being organised by a committee
of researchers
based at
the University of Leicester School of Management. This
committee
consists
of:
Armin Beverungen
Michèle Bowring
Jo Brewis
Gibson Burrell
Nick Butler
Pippa Carter
Ishani Chandrasekara
Stephen Dunne
Leonidas Efthymiou
Nick Ellis
Gavin Jack
Norman Jackson
Campbell Jones
Eleni Karamali
Ruud Kaulingfreks
Tom Keenoy
George Kokkinidis
Geoff Lightfoot
Simon Lilley
Ming Lim
Mark Tadajewski
Martin Parker
Carl Rhodes
Charlotte Sanderson
Christiana Tsaousi
For informal discussions about SCOS 2007, please feel
free to contact
any member
of the organising committee. For more information
about the University
of
Leicester School of Management visit
www.le.ac.uk/ulmc
Abstracts
Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be
submitted as e-mail
attachments
(all common formats accepted) by Friday, 29 December
2006 to
scos@le.ac.uk
Conference Website
For more information on SCOS 2007 visit
www.scos.org
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