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Apologies for Cross-posting PLEASE NOTE CONFIRMED SPEAKERS AND DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION – SEPT 17 2004 The 2nd workshop on Making Projects Critical: ‘Projectification’ and its Discontents 13th-14th December 2004 St Matthias Campus, University of the West of England, Bristol organised by Svetlana Cicmil & Damian Hodgson http://www.uwe.ac.uk/bbs/research/research/mpc Call for Papers There is emerging evidence from several sources of an increasing reliance upon projects as an alternative to bureaucratic and hierarchical means of organising (Pettigrew, 2002) which has been linked by some to the move toward post-bureaucratic, even post-modern organisations (Clegg, 1990; Heckscher and Donnellon, 1994). At the same time, for many writers such evidence appears to support those writers who first drew attention to the ‘projectification of society’ (Midler, 1995; Lundin and Söderholm, 1998) to encapsulate the apparent colonisation of all quarters of life by project-related principles, rules, techniques and procedures to form a new ‘iron cage’ of project rationality. For many, then, ‘the project’ may be seen as a defining feature of late modernity, reflecting shifts towards discontinuity, flexibility, insecurity and impermanence across both developed and developing societies. The attraction of ‘projectification’ lies in its promise to deliver both ‘controllability and adventure’ (Sahlin-Anderson, 2002) and at the same time ‘devolution and accountability’. In the 12 months since the last Making Projects Critical workshop, the debate on the future of project management and our understandings of projects has shown signs of opening up, with an increased willingness from several in the field to re-examine taken-for-granted assumptions underpinning current practice. In large part, it is concerns about the poor performance of project management on its own terms, and the enduring failure to deliver projects ‘on time, on budget, and to specification’, which have motivated this reassessment of the discipline. However, such criticisms may be seen as locked into the same instrumental rationality which has characterised the discipline so far, focusing almost exclusively upon the (in)effectiveness and (in)efficiency of projects as currently organised. We wish in this workshop to move beyond this functionalist position to consider the other side of projects more often neglected in this debate – the broader consequences of projects for those who work within projects, those who are directly affected by projects and indeed those who manage projects. On the one hand, there are strong arguments that project working typically leads to the removal of discretion and autonomy from skilled and committed employees and a tendency to deskill project workers of all levels. At the same time, the intensity of project working has major human impacts within and beyond the workplace, which are often ignored or obscured in the search for greater project efficiency. At the same time, the increased reliance upon projects in the public sector and in international development can be argued to have had deleterious effects upon representation and local democracy, transplanting a neo-liberal form of ‘control at a distance’ in a broad range of contexts. This workshop is intended to encourage research which applies critical perspectives to understand the implications of project management and project organisations for work in the contemporary workplace and for society more broadly. Among the broad range of themes we wish to address in the workshop, issues of power and domination, control and resistance, autonomy and surveillance, figure strongly. Through the workshop, we hope to both highlight and break down the theoretical and methodological limitations of traditional conceptions of projects, project-based organisations/organising and Project Management. We would welcome abstracts from all critical perspectives – Marxist, feminist, labour process, post-structuralist, post-colonialist – without wishing to prescribe a ‘critical’ approach. In addition to work on projects in ‘traditional’ sectors such as engineering, construction and IS/IT, we would particularly invite abstracts dealing with the impact of projects in the public sector, international development, and change management. Specific themes that might be addressed include; • Discipline and Control in Project Teams • Critical Approaches to Project Management Education • Project Managers and Professionalisation • Surveillance and Control in Virtual Projects • Complexity versus Order in Projects • Projects and Governmentality • The Place of Projects in New Public Management • Gender, Project Work and Project Rationality This list of topics is suggestive rather than exhaustive – in general, we would encourage the submission of any work which adopts a broad critical perspective on the theme of projects and project management. Work emanating from the previous workshop is to be published in a forthcoming text by Palgrave, and we would also hope to develop publication possibilities based on the themes and contents of this workshop. As the workshop is self-financing, precise fees are yet to be fixed; however, it is likely that the cost of attendance will be in the region of £100 (€150) per person including meals. As numbers will be limited to 30 persons, please book early. International Invited Speakers: David Courpasson, EM Lyon Stuart Green, University of Reading Donncha Kavanagh, University College Cork Abstracts of up to 300 words or other expressions of interest should be sent to either address below by the deadline of Friday September 17 2004. Svetlana Cicmil Bristol Business School University of the West of England Frenchay Campus Bristol BS16 1QY +44 (0)117 344 3464 [log in to unmask] or Damian Hodgson Manchester School of Management UMIST PO Box 88 Manchester M60 1QD +44 (0)161 200 8791 [log in to unmask]