Dear List-Subscriber,
As the worst shocks of family, gift-giving and overindulgence should now be safely behind
us, we wish to remind you of the following, aptly-named final call for papers.
(Cross-posting is now so common that apologies should be implicitly added to all CFPs, so
no explicit apology added.)
Call for Papers for special issue in the journal Organization:
Organizing Christmas and Beyond
Guest Editors:
Philip Hancock, University of Warwick, UK
Alf Rehn, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Deadline for Submission: 30th April 2010
From Valentine’s Day to Diwali, from Thanksgiving to the Day of the Dead, cultural
festivities provide an excuse for producing, consuming and organizing. On a global scale,
however, few surpass the economic significance of Christmas. In countries where
Christmas is a state or religious sponsored festival it accounts for up to 60% of the
average retail store’s annual turnover. Even where this is not the case, its impact is
significant. In China, for instance, more is now spent at Christmas than during the
traditional Mid-Autumn Festival. Furthermore, in 2007 the country exported $13.4 million
worth of artificial Christmas trees and $142.6 million worth of Christmas tree ornaments to
the US alone, a trade that is, for some, associated more with the prevalence of sweatshop
working conditions that it is with the proliferation of peace and goodwill.
It is not purely as an economic event that Christmas and what one might term its
associated festivities are significant, however. They also require the mobilization of vast
organizational and logistical resources. In the UK, for instance, the Royal Mail delivers
around 150 million cards and packets during the pre-Christmas period; a figure that rises to
around 20 billion in the US. Festive events such as Christmas are also often high on the
organizational agenda of individual households as they cater for, and entertain, not only
their usual members but also scores of relatives, friends and casual acquaintances. In
order to manage what are often such stressful demands, a significant self-help industry
has emerged to service this increasingly profitable market. This ranges from the mass
provision of magazines and websites, to the individualized services of personal planners
and even Christmas consultants amongst others. Christmas, along with its associated
festivities, can, therefore, be viewed as a nexus at which a range of organizational
questions and problematics are thrown into stark relief. Yet despite this, they have
received little sustained attention from within the field of organization studies.
In order to address this lack of attention we invite both theoretical and empirical
submissions that critically explore, but are not limited to, festive themes including:
• The globalization and homogenization of festivity
• Finance, markets and the Christmas hiatus
• The festive labour process
• Festive commercialization, organizational excess and waste
• Ethnic and religious identity in the Christmas workplace
• Festive spirituality and organization
• The aesthetic and spatial characteristics of festive business
• Representations of festive organization
• Festive tourism and cultural identity
• Gender and the sexualization of festive labour
• Domestic organization at Christmas and beyond
Submission: Papers must be submitted electronically by 30th April 2010 (but not before the
31st March 2010) to SAGETrack at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/organization
Manuscripts should be prepared according to the guidelines published in Organization and
on the journal’s website:
http://www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?
level1=600&currTree=Subjects&catLevel1=&prodId=Journal200981
Papers should be no more than 8,000 words, excluding references, and will be blind
reviewed following the journal’s standard review process. For further information, please
contact one of the guest editors: Philip Hancock ([log in to unmask]) or Alf Rehn
([log in to unmask]).
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