Collective for Alternative Organisation Studies (CAOS)
www.le.ac.uk/ulmc/caos
Launch Event:
Opening Up The Future
Wednesday 23 June, 2004
What is CAOS?
The Collective for Alternative Organisation Studies is based in the University
of Leicester's Management Centre (ULMC) and draws upon ULMC's commitment
to develop critical approaches to management research and teaching. Its
aim is to move beyond critiques of modern organisations, towards envisaging
and enacting alternatives guided by values such as social justice and environmental
sustainability. We are moved by a 'politics of recognition' and aim to
recover a sense of organisational diversity and possibility by:
- (Re)contextualising organisational practices. In our view, attending
to the historical, geographical, social and political conditions within
which organising takes place is essential to free organisation from some
universalising or inevitable trajectory, and open up a sense of possibilities.
- (Re)conceptualising 'organisation' in order to open up the space within
which we can represent organisational difference and make out alternative
modes of organising.
- Conducting empirical research documenting the wide range of organisational
forms that have existed throughout history, and highlighting the significance
of their contribution.
- Adopting multi-disciplinary approaches and re-emphasising the perspectives
of history, geography, politics, political economy, anthropology and sociology
in the study of organisation.
- Foregrounding ethical issues such as social justice, environmental sustainability
and responsibility in the study and practice of organising.
Through this, we hope to generate public debates about the possibility
of alternatives, as well as support organisational practices that seek
to challenge dominant models. This involves engaging in various activities,
including research, teaching, the development of collaborative relationships,
seminars and workshops, with other academics, students, and those actively
participating in creating alternatives. For our official launch on June
23, we are hosting a one-day programme of speakers (detailed below) who
are actively involved in the pursuit of alternative organising and organisations
in different capacities.
Programme and Speakers
10 Arrival and coffee: Belvoir Suite, City Side, 2nd floor Charles Wilson
Bldg
10.15 Opening remarks
10.30 'The development of alternative organisations and practices: some
experiences from NEF', Andrea Westall, Deputy Director of New Economics
Foundation.
11.30 'The Tower Colliery Cooperative: an alternative organisation?' Tom
Keenoy, Len Arthur, Russell Smith, Molly Scott-Cato, Welsh Institute for
Research into Cooperatives, UWIC, Cardiff.
12.30 Lunch until 2pm, Belvoir Suite, City Side, 2nd floor Charles Wilson
Bldg
14.00 'The Politics of Thinking in Hierarchic Organisation', Ricardo Blaug,
University of Leeds.
15.00 'The Organization of Resistance', Steffen Böhm, University of Essex
and André Spicer, University of Warwick.
16.00 Concluding remarks
Registration
The event will take place in the Belvoir Suite (park side) on the 2nd floor
of the Charles Wilson Building, University of Leicester. There is no registration
fee but the number of places is limited. To register, please return the
following information by June 18 to Professor Colin C. Williams, CAOS,
University of Leicester Management Centre, University Road, Leicester,
LE1 7RH. Tel: 0116 252 5387. Fax: 0116 252 5515. E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Name:
Title/Position:
Employing Institution:
Contact Address:
Phone Number:
Email Address:
Do you have any specific dietary requirements? (e.g. vegan)
Distributed to all SCOS members by David Crowther, Membership Secretary
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