Apologies for cross-postings
Call for Papers:
Special Issue of ORGANIZATION
Images of Organizing in Popular Culture
Guest Editors: Carl Rhodes (University of Technology, Sydney), Martin
Parker (University of Leicester) and Barbara Czarniawska (Göteborg
University)
For more than 20 years the field of organization studies has taken as one
of its mainstays the study of culture. When culture is considered,
however, it is usually done in terms of corporate culture, organizational
culture or – recently – cultural diversity at work. Thus, while the
culture of 9 to 5 has been discussed exhaustively, relatively little
thinking has gone in to the relationship between work and the culture of 5
to 9. Meanwhile, in cultural studies organizations and businesses have
also received significant consideration but mainly in the context of
the ‘culture industries’ and the control of cultural production and
consumption.
In this special issue, we want to extend the study of culture by
critically examining images of organizing in mass popular culture. We look
for accounts of how these can be understood, researched and theorized in
the inter-disciplinary nexus of organization studies and cultural
studies. After all, the discussion and dramatization of working relations
is ubiquitous in forms of mass-mediated popular culture – whether it be
television, radio, popular music, the cinema, or the printed media. It is
clear that the consumers of popular culture readily find entertainment
when watching, listening to and reading about work. What is less clear,
however, is how these cultural forms relate back to organized work itself.
We are calling for papers that explore the relationship between the
experience of work, organizations and management and the portrayal of that
experience in mass popular culture. Submissions should go beyond the
assumption that the production of mass culture is purely economic and/or
exploitative and try to explore popular culture’s ambivalence and even
hostility to organizations. We welcome contributions that employ
methodological approaches such as narrative analysis, semiotics, discourse
analysis, ficto-criticism, audience research, ethnography and auto-
ethnography.
Submitted papers might consider, but not be limited to, the following
issues:
* How popular culture does (or does not) shape the way that people make
sense of their experiences with and at work
* How the knowledge embedded in popular culture narratives differs from,
and can exceed, that presented in conventional academic research
* How popular culture can be a shaper of professional identity, especially
for those professions that have been fictionalized in the mass media
(e.g. police, lawyers, doctors)
* How popular culture is consumed in official and unofficial ways in
workplaces and how this influences the culture and meaning of work
* How representations of work and organizations in popular culture can be
openly critical of, or oppositional to, management
* How popular culture can be considered as, or is used as, a site of
resistance to management
* How popular culture accounts of the meaning of work, organizations and
management compare with those accounts in the academic literature
* How popular culture is and can be creatively used in workplace settings
(e.g. re-worked song lyrics, use of cartoon images etc.)
Submission Procedure:
Papers must be sent electronically to Submission: Papers must be sent
electronically to [log in to unmask] before 31 May 2007 as Word e-
mail attachments, indicating Images of Organizing in Popular Culture in
the subject line. Manuscripts must be prepared according to the guidelines
published in every issue of Organization also available at the journal’s
web site: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalManuscript.aspx?
pid=105723&sc=1. Papers should be between 5000 and 8000 words and will be
blind reviewed following the journals standard process. For further
information contact either Carl Rhodes ([log in to unmask]), Martin
Parker ([log in to unmask]), or Barbara Czarniawska
([log in to unmask])
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