With Apologies for cross-posting
10th EURAM Conference, Back to the Future May 19-22, 2010, Tor Vergata
University, Rome, Italy
Call for Papers - Business in Society SIG Track 30:
Organization After Empire? State, Corporate and Popular Reactions and
Resistances to the Crises of Capitalism
Co-organisers
Stephen Linstead (contact) Stefano Harney Garance Marechal University of
York Queen Mary University London University of Liverpool [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]
Description
Critical historical approaches to the study of capitalism and political
economy and the dark side of globalization (including the sources of the
current crisis) have been revitalized by Boltanski and Chiapello's The New
Capitalism (1999 and 2005) and Hardt and Negri's Empire (2000) and
Multitude (2004). Empire became a best-seller by reinterpreting the past
and arguing that the historical objectives pursued by political and
military means are now pursued by social, cultural and economic means, and
global hegemony at this level extends from previous more obviously
aggressive historical imperial forms. Hardt and Negri argued that
boundaries become increasingly blurred between cultural politics, political
economy, cultural economy and political aesthetics, as culture becomes
commodified and plasticized and processors of both information and
materials shape and may dominate processes of government. After the Second
Gulf War it at first appeared that the Corporation, rather than the State,
was the prime determinant of political agendas and that military means to
achieving these were as important as ever. But more recently, since the
Credit Crunch, the State's role has been temporarily revitalized, in
response to the often desperate entreaties from those who for two decades
had been most firmly resistant to state intervention in business affairs.
Is this really a return to the past or is it a fundamental change in
relations, and power balance, between parliamentary bodies, Wall Street and
the High Street ? Has the march of Empire been stalled, reversed, or just
slowed? Do we know enough about the new workings of Empire to even hazard a
guess? Since the Second World War, globalization as a process has been
encouraged under the auspices of the UN, the GATT, the World Bank and more
recently the WTO, exerting pressure on both developing and developed
nations to structure their economies in particular ways. Since the 1970s
this has reflected monetarist approaches to state control and intervention,
away from welfare. During the 1990s, efforts were made to curb the worst
effects and promote the benefits of globalization. The UN recently launched
the Global Compact, and with several universities and business schools,
national management associations and academies, and corporations the UN has
formed the Global Forum for Business as an Agent of World Benefit (BAWB),
and the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative.
Whilst the Global Forum announces its 2009 objective as a "task of historic
significance", are these efforts just another ideological elaboration of
the mask that keeps the world safe for capital?
In this stream we seek to build on past work introducing the ideas of the
new critique of capital into organization studies to ask deeper questions
about the nature of the current crisis of capitalism, the recent history of
the corporation and its influence, the nature of global collusions between
corporations and governments, the role of educational institutions, the
realities and possibilities of resistance, the future role and power of the
state and its potential forms - and the implications of all this for
organizations and organizing. We are keen to encourage both new reflections
grounded in philosophy and organization theory as well as empirical and
historical analyses of the ways in which empire and corporate histories
intersect, particularly through ever more sophisticated processes of
commodification. We encourage methodological diversity in progressing
debates, and welcome discursive analyses as well as quantitative approaches
if clearly grounded in well articulated ideas. Contributions that utilize
analyses of forms of popular culture, including feature films,
documentaries and press coverage, are also welcome.
Submission and other conference details can be found on the conference
website
www.euram2010.org.
Deadline for papers (20 pages) is December 7th 2009 - full specifications at
http://www.euram2010.org/r/default.asp?iId=EGKLJF
|