Dear colleagues and/or comrades,
Please see below and attached the call for papers for the annual conference
of *ephemera journal*.
Kindly,
Mariya
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Irina Cheresheva <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 22 November 2017 at 18:55
Subject: Fwd: ephemera conference 2018 - post/social/isms
Please see below and attached the call for papers for the annual conference
of *ephemera*.
*ephemera: theory and politics in organization* (http://www.ephem
erajournal.org) is an independent peer-reviewed open access journal founded
in 2001 that charges its readers only with free thought. Articles published
in ephemera develop theoretical insights or emphasize political
problematics of organizations, organization and organizing. We refrain from
imposing a narrow definition of organization and operate at the borders of
organization studies in that we continuously seek to question what
organization (studies) is and what it can become.
*Post/social/isms *
*Gólya Community House, Budapest, Hungary 24-25 May 2018 *
*Organizers: Irina Cheresheva, Chris Giotitsas, Márton Rácz and Konstantin
Stoborod *
The almost 30-year history of postsocialism has largely eluded organization
theory, even though the unfettered expansion of neoliberalism has been seen
as a vindication of the collapse of the former eastern bloc. This makes it
timely to consider what has happened with (post)socialist organizations,
not only in terms of the flow of ‘Western’ concepts of management and
organizing into the postsocialist region but also the flow of Foreign
Direct Investment and its accompanying waves of privatization. Building on
the 2015 ephemera conference in Moscow around the theme of ‘emergence’,
this year’s conference asks participants to reflect on what has emerged
during arguably the biggest socio-political change of the late-20th
century. We invite papers that in addressing ‘post/social/isms’ explore and
extend the links between postsocialism, the post-social, and theory and
politics in organization.
The explicitly and symbolically violent breaks from the state-socialist
regime often resulted in a warm welcoming of neoliberal thought and social
policy in the ‘Wild East’ of the 1990s. Postsocialist transformation has
brought with it often contradictory ways of translating former Party
affiliation into new political and/or economic power (see Eyal et al.,
1998). The adaptation of Western management ideas in newly appeared
multinational corporations, shared services centres, and reformed public
organizations has changed post socialist people’s identities by transposing
responsibility from the state onto the (gendered) individual and the newly
established market capitalist organizations (Dunn 2004, Kelemen and
Hristov, 1998). Attempts at reforming identities through rewriting history
and rebranding countries as well as individual efforts at upward mobility
and its corresponding cultural distinctions abound in the region (Śliwa,
2009).
Contradicting the assumption of a teleological transition, some countries
have clung onto social democratic ideas and social organizations that stem
from the old regime. Earlier managerial practices have also mixed with and
lived on in the newly established market economies (Kelemen, 1999; Kelemen
and Kostera, 2002). These practices co-exist with an increasing ‘ostalgia’
(nostalgia for the former Eastern bloc) with its Trabant tours and revival
of classic brands of the socialist period, a yearning for gendered welfare
systems that reward the domestic contributions of working women now past,
and a revived enthusiasm, especially amongst the youth, for organizing for
a different socialist future. Reverse flows, that is socialist influences
on capitalism, have always existed (Beverungen et al., 2013; Burawoy, 1985;
Kelemen and Bunzel, 2008). For instance, events like the Hungarian
revolution in 1956 (termed a ‘counterrevolution’ until 1989) or the Prague
Spring of 1968 have greatly influenced thinkers all over the world, just
like the current organization of higher education in the UK resembles that
of the Stalinist command economy (Brandist, 2017).
The notion of ‘postsocialist’ can be shown to serve particular interests,
both in terms of maintaining the constructions of Eastern Europe and the
Balkans as orientalizing categories and also in organizing the symbolism of
an assumed cultural and religious similarity to Western Europe (Azarova,
2017; Bakić-Hayden, 1995; Melegh, 2006, Samaluk, 2016; Todorova, 1997;
Wolff, 1994). The ‘eastern’ expansion of the European Union, its
colonialist developmental mission, and talks of a ‘two-speed Europe’ all
sustain the status of the postsocialist ‘other’ (see Böröcz, 2001). This
questions the idea of ‘transition’ between two stable states altogether,
with anthropologists arguing that it rather is the continual feeling of
dwelling in the ‘grey zones’ of everyday uncertainty that defines the new
period (Buyandelgeriyn, 2008; Knudsen and Frederiksen, 2015). Grey zones
complicate the idea of centre and periphery whether through the forgotten
concept of the ‘Second-World’ or from the perspective of postcolonial
theory (Chari and Verdery, 2009; Owczarzak, 2009; Westwood et al., 2014).
The adoption of these approaches to post-socialist thinking might also
allow management scholars to counter the ‘self-imposed coloniality’ that
the often uncritical adoption of neoliberal theories entailed
(Ibarra-Colado, 2008: 933). The uncertainty of grey zones requires that we
revisit and question dominant narratives of the early 1990s, for instance,
that women were the main economic losers of the change of regimes (Ghodsee,
2005).
With this and other societal changes, we would have to think about how to
imagine a different (post-)postsocial social organization. One that might
overcome the political economic problem of shortage (Kornai, 1992), one
that re-evaluates the organizational features of socialisms, e.g. the
Yugoslav self-management model (Robertson, 2017), one that is premised on a
different relationship to ourselves and the objects around us (Kravets,
2013). We could also think about whether current and former thinkers from
the former Eastern bloc or other (post)social(ist) geographical locations
(e.g. Cuba, Venezuela) could help us theorize ‘post-social’ and
‘postsocialist’.
We therefore invite submissions that may include, but are not limited to,
the following themes:
- Theory and politics of postsocialist organizations, management, and
leadership
- Theorizing and politicizing organization through the works of
(post)socialist thinkers, scholars, and philosophers
- Translations of neoliberal management thought
- Challenges of postsocial/ist experiences to dominant theories of
organization
- Connections between the post-social and postsocialism
- Connections between socialist and postsocialist ways of being and
practices of organizing
- Physical and symbolic violence of transitions
- Problematization and meanings of the notion of ‘postsocialism’
- Grey zones and the post-postsocialist
- Organizing power of the notions of ‘postsocialist’, ‘communist’,
‘(counter)revolutionary’, ‘iron curtain’, ‘eastern bloc’, etc.
- Postsocialism, the post-social, and the EU
*Deadlines and further information *
*ephemera* encourages contributions in a variety of formats including
articles, notes, photo essays and any experimental modes of representation.
The deadline for submitting abstracts is 1st February 2018. Abstracts of no
more than 500 words should be submitted in a Pages/Word document, and any
questions addressed, to Irina Cheresheva ([log in to unmask]) or Márton Rácz (
[log in to unmask]). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 15th
February 2018.
The conference will be held at the Gólya Community House in Budapest (
http://golyapresszo.hu/?lang=en_us). We might be able to arrange childcare
at the venue for the afternoons, please contact the organizers if you have
such needs.
The conference is free for participants without institutional support and
£20 for whom funding is available. Please register here:
https://ephemera2018.eventbrite.com
Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of
*ephemera*.
*References*
Azarova, A. (2017) ‘Eastern Europe according to British media: More likely
to go to Italy for cappuccinos than join the ethnic fighting in Kosovo’,
Krytyka Polityczna & European Alternatives. [http://politicalcritique.org/
cee/2017/azarova-uk-media-eastern-europe-western-representation/]
Bakić-Hayden, M. (1995) ‘Nesting orientalisms: The case of former
Yugoslavia’, Slavic Review, 54(4): 917-931.
Beverungen, A., A-M. Murtola and G. Schwartz (2013) ‘The communism of
capital?’, ephemera, 13(3): 483-495.
Böröcz, J. (2001) ‘Introduction: Empire and coloniality in the “eastern
enlargement” of the European Union’, in J. Böröcz and M. Kovács (eds.)
Empire’s new clothes. Telford: Central Europe Review Ltd.
Brandist, C. (2017) ‘The perestroika of academic labour: The neoliberal
transformation of higher education and the resurrection of the “command
economy”’, ephemera, 17(3): 583-607.
Burawoy, M. (1985) The politics of production. London: Verso.
Buyandelgeriyn, M. (2008) ‘Post-post-transition theories: Walking on
multiple paths’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 37: 235-250.
Chari, S. and K. Verdery (2009) ‘Thinking between the posts:
Postcolonialism, postsocialism, and ethnography after the cold war’,
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 51(1): 6-34.
Dunn, E. (2004) Privatizing Poland. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Eyal, G., E. Townsley and I. Szelényi (1998) Making capitalism without
capitalists. London and New York: Verso.
Ghodsee, K. (2005) The red riviera. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ibarra-Colado, E. (2008) ‘Is there any future for critical management
studies in Latin America? Moving from epistemic coloniality to
“trans-discipline”’, Organization, 15(6): 932-935.
Kelemen, M. (1999) ‘The myth of restructuring, “competent” managers and the
transition to a market economy: a Romanian tale’, British Journal of
Management, 10: 199-208.
Kelemen, M. and D. Bunzel (2008) ‘Images of the model worker in
state-socialist propaganda and novels – the case of Romania’, Culture and
Organization, 14(1): 1-14.
Kelemen, M. and L. Hristov (1998) ‘From centrally planned culture to
entrepreneurial culture: The example of Bulgarian and Romanian
organisations’, Journal for East European Management Studies, 3(3):
216-226.
Kelemen, M. and M. Kostera (eds) (2002) Critical management research in
Eastern Europe. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Knudsen, I.H. and M.D. Frederiksen (eds) (2015) Ethnographies of grey zones
in Eastern Europe. London and New York: Anthem Press.
Kornai, J. (1992) The socialist system. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kravets, O. (2013) ‘On things and comrades’, ephemera, 13(2): 421-436.
Melegh, A. (2006) On the east-west slope. Budapest and New York: Central
European University Press.
Owczarzak, J. (2009) ‘Introduction: Postcolonial studies and postsocialism
in Eastern Europe’, Focaal, (53): 3-19.
Robertson, J. (2017) ‘The life and death of Yugoslav socialism’, Jacobin,
17th July.
Samaluk, B. (2016) ‘Migration , consumption and work : A postcolonial
perspective on post-socialist migration to the UK’, ephemera, 16(3):
95-118.
Śliwa, M. (2009) ‘“This is not the same city”: narratives of postsocialist
spatial change’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 22(6):
650-667.
Todorova, M. (1997) Imagining the Balkans. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Westwood, R., G. Jack, F.R. Khan and M. Frenkel (eds) (2014) Core-periphery
relations and organization studies. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Wolff, L. (1994) Inventing Eastern Europe. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
--
M.
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