CFP: Behind the Scenes, Between the Lines. Dis-Membering the Dark Side of Organization

First Call for Papers: Behind the Scenes, Between the Lines.
Dis-Membering the Dark Side of Organization
June 25-27 2008, Wortley Hall, Sheffield, UK

Conference Organizers: Garance Maréchal (University of Liverpool); Hugo Letiche (UvH Utrecht); Stephen Linstead (University of York); Torkild Thanem (University of Vaxjo).

Keynotes by: Professor Gibson Burrell, University of Leicester Management School; Professor Stewart Clegg, University of Technology, Sydney and AIM

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 28 November 2007 (300-500 words)
Decisions on acceptance of abstracts: 18 January 2008.
Deadline for submission of full papers : 30 April 2008

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In this two-day conference, we wish to explore, track, display and dis-member the ‘dark side’ of organization. We are interested in the perhaps instinctual, impulsive, non organized and hidden dynamics that influence organizing, and especially its ‘upsetting’ part. Our aim is to confront the potential of the dark side of organization as an alternative focus for understanding organizational life.

We invite papers that consider such questions as:
- Should we talk about a “dark side”? How can it be defined and why is it conceived of as being dark? Can and should the “dark side” be suppressed? Can it be creative as well as destructive? Is an ethics of the dark side possible? Is there also a horror of “whiteness”?
- Are organizations no more than trembling aggregates of human flesh, violence, pain and/or desires? How can organization studies engage with the nature of the formless? Is aesthetics one way to recognise its negativity? Are there others?
- Does dis-membering mean more than taking apart? Does it require the development of new methods of study and how can they be generated?

Possible themes that papers might address could include: - Desire, sexuality, carnality, passion, sacrifice and the sacred in organization - Depravity, perversion and transgression in organization;
- Corruption, bribery, organizational crime, fraud, post-Enron issues
- Abuse of power, harassment, bullying, intimidation, extortion,bystanding, suicide, murder.
- Secrecy, espionage, disinformation, surveillance.
- The creativity of the dark side and the dark side of learning.
- Decrepitude, decay, terror and horror.
- Organized aspects of human tragedies and disasters – war, genocide, exploitation and displacement of indigenous people by “development” projects.
- Technologies of horror and the horrors of technology.
- The monstrous in organization and organization theory – including consideration of excess, waste, hybrids, chimera.
- The significance of illusion, including dreams; symbolism, artefacts and language of the dark side; simulacra, escapism, gambling, risk.
- Non-knowledge, non-being and the Inhuman.
- Phantoms, spectres, spirits and ghosts…..!

We also welcome papers that:
- Explore the potential contributions to the understanding of the dark side of organization of specific authors and movements outside the boundary of organization studies, such as: Artaud, Bataille, surrealism or recent approaches to the application of psychoanalysis (such as Zizek’s appropriation of Lacan, and the work of Laplanche).
- Develop approaches to formlessness: the rhizomatics of the dark side; architecture, thresholds, transitions, ectoplasm, clouds, mess, pneumatology; challenges of the formless to organizational philosophy.
- Attempt further to explore arguments advanced in Burrell’s Pandemonium

Papers and Proposals
We invite proposals for innovative forms of presentations as well as conventional papers; innovative forms can include performances, demonstrations of methods or techniques, and novel or unconventional utilizations of representational forms. Forms that unleash the dark side of individual or collective creativity (like the surrealists’ exquisite cadaver) and make it available for scrutiny are particularly welcome. Should your presentation require a timing or other resources outside the conventional format, please set out your requirements clearly. We hope to facilitate a wide range of approaches to the topic.

Registration
@ £275 per person (single) £220 (sharing)- includes all accommodation and meals from 2pm 25th to 2pm 27th and will cost . Accommodation and registration forms will be available in autumn 2007.

Garance Marechal
University of Liverpool Management School
Chatham Street
L69 7ZH Liverpool UK
Phone: (44) 151 795 3808
Email: g.marechal@liv.ac.uk
Email: darksideoforg@btinternet.com
Visit the website at http://slinstead.userworld.com/darkside/dsindex.html