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I would remonstrate and demonstrate that there was also in John Knox's famous words "the monstrous regiment of Women" And there of course there was the monster club http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4twr6nDVgU& worthy of a paper surely. Larry > -----Original Message----- > From: The Disability-Research Discussion List [mailto:DISABILITY- > [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nicola Martin > Sent: 11 August 2011 10:08 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Call for Papers Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – An International Journal: > Special Issue ‘Diversity, Difference and Inclusion in Monstrous Organizations’ > > _____________________________________________ > Subject: FW: Call for Papers Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – An International > Journal: Special Issue ‘Diversity, Difference and Inclusion in Monstrous > Organizations’ > > > > Nicola Martin > Head of Disability and Well-being Service > London School of Economics and Political Science > Houghton Street > London > WC2A2AE > 02079556034 > [log in to unmask] > > Disability Equality Research Network > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=DERN > Click on this link to join the DERN Network > > _____________________________________________ > > > Call for Papers > Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – An International Journal > Special Issue: > ‘Diversity, Difference and Inclusion in Monstrous Organizations’ > Guest Editors: > Torkild Thanem, Stockholm University School of Business > Alison Pullen, Swansea University School of Business & Economics > > “Monster”, “monstrosity” and “monstrous” have traditionally been used as pejorative > terms, suggesting an ‘imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening’, > ‘an inhumanly cruel or wicked person’, ‘a person, typically a child, who is rude or > badly behaved’, ‘a thing or animal that is excessively or dauntingly large’ or ‘a > congenitally malformed or mutant animal or plant’ (see The New Oxford Dictionary of > English) – whether a person with sexually ambiguous genitals, a person with growth > disorders, or a hybrid animal. Monsters, monstrosities and the monstrous are therefore > seen to disrupt the normal boundaries of size, shape or morality. > Historically, the dynamic meaning of the monstrous is ambiguous. In medieval and > renaissance times monsters emerged from immoral acts, signs of God’s wrath against > human sin, and whilst standing against nature they lived amongst ordinary beings. In > early modern times, monsters were part of the natural order but excluded from > participation in mainstream society, often incarcerated in hospitals and asylums or cast > as freak show performers. In contemporary modern times, the monstrous occupies the > margins of both nature and society, receiving limited attention in mainstream science > whilst being frequently mobilized as a rhetorical device in branding, advertising and > the news media and as a core theme in the production of popular culture by the > entertainment industry. Headlines invoke excessive acts and opportunities such as > Enron’s ‘Monster Mess’ (Fortune, 2001) and job seekers upload their CVs on > Monster.com. Moviegoers flock to watch the superhuman strengths of Spiderman or X- > Men, and reality television peeks into the unruly fits of ‘Bridezillas’, the ‘Monster > Quest’ for ‘giant squids’, and the everyday troubles of conjoined twins and > transsexuals. The term “monster”, then, presents opportunities for spectacle and > discrimination, yet the monstrous is politically important to surface, challenge and > undo difference and its abjection. To bring about an ethical engagement with > organization and the management of difference and diversity requires us to embody the > monstrous rather than to voyeurize monstrosity, to physically and viscerally feel and > experience the ‘uncertainty of strange encounters’ (Shildrick, 2002: 7). > During the past couple of decades, research in the humanities and social sciences have > problematized the pejorative connotations of monsters, monstrosities and the > monstrous (Thanem, 2011). Such approaches have rethought what has long been > considered grotesque into a body politic that troubles norms and provokes difference > and abjection to subvert. Kristeva’s writing on horror (1982) reminds us that it is > through extremity and abjection that transgression becomes possible and that the > monstrous is conventionally cast in opposition to orderliness, organization and > organizing. Female monsters (Braidotti, 1994) such as vampires, Medusa and succubi > evoke horror, abjection and extremity through the exaggerated transgression of the > feminine – often with female beauty and seductiveness being seen as the source of > monstrosity. The excessive maternal body heterogeneously couples mother and child > (e.g. Halberstam, 1995; Russell, 2000; Shildrick, 2002; Ussher, 2006) and disrupts > organizational spaces (Longhurst, 2001). > While feminist writings reveal the female body as leaky, vulnerable and grotesque, > science and technology studies have proposed a sociology of monsters pre-occupied > with the multiple memberships of individuals and the heterogeneous couplings between > humans and machines (Law, 1991). Further, organization studies have cast “hopeful > monsters” as a counterpoint to bureaucracy (Du Gay, 1994) and viewed rational > calculation as a monstrous discipline (Clegg, 2005), the possibility of research as > monstrous knowledge (Rhodes, 2001), and the monstrous as a matter of distortion, > subversion and undecidability (Bloomfield and Vurdubakis, 1999). > There is little doubt, then, that the monstrous remains a powerful metaphor for > difference, deviance, boundary disruption and heterogeneity in natural, social and > organizational life – and one that can be employed both oppressively and affirmatively. > In this call, we invite papers that interrogate how the monstrous relates to issues of > equality, difference, diversity, inclusion and exclusion. Although the monstrous may be > associated with immoral practices that reduce or exclude the prospects for equality, > diversity and inclusion in organizations, we are also concerned with the prospects for a > positively monstrous understanding of organizations – how organizations may become > positively monstrous by becoming increasingly diverse and inclusive. > This special issue therefore seeks to publish papers that address issues including (but > not limited to): > * Monstrous aspects of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, (dis)ability and other > diversity factors in organizational life; monstrous, abject, freak and excess bodies and > identities and their alienation, exclusion and inclusion in organizations. > * Monstrously im/moral business practices, monstrous ethics in organizations; > diversity management practices as negatively and positively monstrous. > * Monstrosity, resistance, liberation and the debasing of cultural norms in > organizations; mutants and mutant organizational cultures. > * Monstrous couplings between humans, machines, animals and microorganisms > in organizations. > * The representation of monsters in small and big business entertainment > industries; the grotesque and the carnivalesque, vulgarity, spectacles and fetishization > in organizations. > * Monstrous ontology, theory, knowledge and politics of organizational life. > Complete papers should be sent to both guest editors by 31 December 2011. Please > contact the guest editors if you wish to discuss an idea or proposal for a paper. Email > Alison on [log in to unmask] or Torkild on [log in to unmask] > Submission guidelines are available on: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/edi > <http://listmanager.emeraldinsight.com/t/19318/8591863/5897/0/> > Schedule > May 15, 2011: Call for papers issued > February 28, 2012: Submission of full papers > May 31, 2012: Editorial decision > 2012: Anticipated publication of the special issue > > > > Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications > disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer > > > ________________End of message________________ > > This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies > at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). > > Enquiries about list administration should be sent to disability-research- > [log in to unmask] > > Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html > > You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page. ________________End of message________________ This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). 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