Gender, Work and Organization

5th international interdisciplinary conference, 27^th – 29^th June 2007

Call for Papers

Emotion and aesthetics

Stream Convenors:

Leanne Cutcher, Economics and Business, University of Sydney, Australia

Philip Hancock, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK

Melissa Tyler, Business School, Loughborough University, UK

The emotional and the aesthetic are inexorably linked. If the ‘aesthetic’ describes an embodied and profoundly sensual means of experiencing the world then it is, more often than not, to our emotions that we turn in order to make sense of, and express, such experiences. Furthermore, as sociologists such as Nick Crossley (1998) have emphasized, emotions are largely inter-subjective (experienced or made sense of in relation to others) and communicative (used to convey how we feel). In this sense, the aesthetic and the emotional can be recognised as important contributors to the generation of what has been termed ‘staging value’; that is, value that transcends both use and exchange but is embedded in the albeit temporary satisfaction of a largely sensual imperative within what Böhme (2003) has termed an aesthetic economy. Yet despite this perhaps somewhat self-evident relationship, as well as the increasing significance of staging value, little sustained consideration has been given within organisation studies to the interface between the emotional and the aesthetic.

Recent research on gender and work that has emphasized the ways in which women continue to be positioned as Other – in the organisation, but not of it (Kerfoot and Knights, 1996). In doing so, it has drawn attention not only to the structural disadvantages women experience, but also to their marginalization within organisational cultures and symbolism (Gherardi, 1995), and particularly to their equation with the emotional and embodied aspects of organisational life. At the same time, a growing body of literature has also emphasized the ways in which work organisations increasingly seek to manage their aesthetic dimension. In particular, this has often involved a commodification of the skills and characteristics attributed to femininity, particularly in the sphere of interactive service work. A number of ethnographic studies have highlighted some of the ways in which the gendered division of labour means that female employees especially are required to manage their performance and presentation of self so as to engender a particular aesthetic and emotional experience for customers, clients or co-workers. In practice, this suggests both an exclusion and an over-inclusion, implying that many women have to both induce or suppress particular aspects of their embodied mselves in accordance with emotional and aesthetic regimes defined largely by their employing organisation, while at the same time being required to perform often highly visible aesthetic roles.

This stream provides a forum within which to explore the ways in which gender shapes (and is shapes by) the interface between the emotional and the aesthetic in the configuration, organisation, experience, representation and management of work. Although much has been written in recent years on the topic of emotion (particularly on emotional labour) and the management of the aesthetic dimension of work, the interface between the emotional and the aesthetic is an area within which much remains to be thought, said and done. This stream aims to provide a forum within which to disseminate and discuss research on the conceptual, empirical and theoretical aspects of the interface between the emotional, the aesthetic and the gendered aspects of work and organisation.  Possible contributions to the stream might include, but should not be limited to, papers on:

• Conceptual aspects of the emotional and the aesthetic in organisations.
• Theoretical perspectives on emotions and aesthetics.
• Emotion in an aesthetic economy.
• Aesthetic and emotional forms of labour in service work.
• Aesthetics, emotion and embodiment.
• The ethics of aesthetic and emotional management.
• Methodological aspects of emotion and aesthetics in organisational research.
• Symbolic and semiotic dimensions of emotion and aesthetics.

Abstracts should be one page, single space and of approximately 500 words (excluding any references) giving title of paper, keywords, contact details including your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address. Submission date for abstracts is 1^st November 2006. All abstracts will be peer reviewed. Abstracts should be emailed to Leanne Cutcher (l.cutcher@econ.usyd.edu.au), Philip Hancock (Philip.hancock@wbs.ac.uk) and Melissa Tyler (m.j.tyler@lboro.ac.uk). State the title of the stream to which you are submitting your abstract.