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CfP CMS17 Crises of Meaning at the Fringes of Economy

  • 1.  CfP CMS17 Crises of Meaning at the Fringes of Economy

    Posted 12-13-2016 07:47

    Dear Colleagues,


    Please see below a CfP for the stream 'Crises of meaning at the fringes of economy' at the Critical Management Studies Conference, 2017. Apologies for cross-posting. 


    Convenors:
    Dr Deborah N. Brewis, Kingston University, UK
    Prof. Anne-Marie Greene, De Montfort University, UK
    Dr Carolyn Hunter, York University UK
    Dr Laura Mitchell, Keele University, UK


    We invite contributions that consider how 'crises of meaning' are contributing to the development of new frameworks for understanding work that takes place at the fringes of the traditional paid economy, such as work by those undertaking volunteering, creative and digital self-employment, or those in precarious work. Fields of interest include creative and digital labour, freelancing, self-employment and volunteering, the creative industries and community sharing economies of 'independent workers' (e.g. Uber, Deliveroo, AirBnB).  

    The notion of crisis speaks beyond defining critical historical events to the gradual transformation of the traditional social frameworks with which we understand and conduct our lives. Historical crises (present in our minds with the approaching centenary of the Great War) and modern crises (global economic crises of 2009, modern wars, migration and looming Brexit) are felt not only at a national level but also as individuals and communities. Crises are experienced, by many, as an everyday struggle in which the frameworks traditionally used to attribute meaning to labour and work have been fundamentally unsettled. The creative industries in particular have been subject to claims that work has become increasingly precarious (Gill and Pratt, 2008) and that the divisions between work and leisure are blurred. In recent years we have seen the rise of boundaryless careers (Rodrigues & Guest, 2010) that collapse traditional divisions: such as between work and play through gamification and 'playbour' (Kücklich, 2005); and between paid and unpaid labour through volunteering (O'Toole and Grey, 2016), the sharing economy (Bauer & Gegenhuber, 2015) and the connectivity of social media (van Dijck, 2013; Dery, Kolb & MacCormick, 2014). For those at the edges, where traditional frameworks have been eroded, there is a pressing struggle to identify new ways of finding value in work and understanding the place that work holds in their lives. 

    Through exploring their part in a wider crisis of work, we call for contributions that question the common assumption that creative forms of labour represent a new, enlightened future for employment. We invite papers that challenge assumptions that are often made about the forms of work that we have outlined, such as 'humane work' (Ross, 2004), 'good work' (Hesmondhalgh & Baker, 2011), the 'creative class lifestyle' (Florida, 2005), and project-based enterprises (Pratt, 2009). This call is interested in hearing from those who return to traditional theorists (Marx, Bourdieu, Foucault, Douglas, Hochschild), as well as those who explore new theoretical possibilities and open up discussions around class, gender, race, embodiment, emotions and the materiality of labour at the fringes of society. We particularly welcome papers which explore whether there is a fundamental human need for greater meaning in work (Yeoman 2013) and the success or failure of such pursuits through new forms of work, spaces, and technologies; and equally whether these environments transform work experiences, diminishing some traditional frameworks of meaning and offering new ones in their place. Such frameworks may draw on and re-work notions such as autonomy, dignity and meaningful work. 

    We call for participants to engage with the idea of 'crises of meaning' both theoretically and empirically. We welcome contributions on topics that may include (but are not limited to):

    • Crises at the level of the community and the individual, especially related to employment in the 'creative class' and 'sharing economy'
    • Valuing work: unpaid labour, hope labour and insecure conditions of employment
    • Autonomy and dignity
    • Spaces of work and their meaning or value (e.g. co-working, home working and working in virtual space)
    • Boundaries and interrelations of work and non-work (e.g. creative labour, technology and the right to disconnect, playbour, gamification, privacy)
    • Emotions and affect in relation to crises (e.g. 'crises of happiness' & narratives of disappointment)
    • Class, gender, race, embodiment, emotions and materiality of labour at the fringes of society

    Please send abstracts or any questions to: Deborah Brewis at D.Brewis@Kingston.ac.uk
    Abstracts should be a maximum of 500 words, A4 paper, single spaced, 12 point font.
    Abstract submission deadline: 31st January 2017
    Notification of paper acceptance: by 28th February 2017

    Full details can also be found at this address. 


    Best wishes,


    Deborah 


    Dr Deborah N. Brewis

    Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour

    Department of Management

    D.Brewis@Kingston.ac.uk

    Room KHBS3007, Kingston Business School, Kingston University, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames KT2 7LB


    --
    Deborah Brewis
     
    Associate Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick
    Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour, Kingston Business School
    Also tweeting for Management Learning - The journal for critical, reflexive scholarship on organization and learning. 
    My links on the web: ePortfolio, LinkedIn, Twitter