Abstract
Call for Papers
Ignasi Martí, EMLYON Business School
Dennis K Mumby, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
David Seidl, University of Zurich
Robyn Thomas, Cardiff Business School
Deadline: November 30, 2014
Resistance has had a rather curious and paradoxical history. From the resistance to Nazi occupation and colonial domination, to the recent Arab Spring and Indignados of Spain, resistance is often celebrated in the public imaginary. However, while it has been a central and enduring theme in political and social theory, traditionally resistance has had a marginal reputation in conventional organization studies. Viewed as a problem, a challenge, and something to be avoided or eradicated, resistance is often equated with troublemaking. In other words, the dominant view in organization studies holds that resistance is adversarial, problematic and harmful for organizations, communities, and societies alike. However, recent, alternate voices have argued that the study of resistance, resisting and resisters has the potential to bring new perspectives to the intersection of economic, social, and political aspects and processes in and around organizations and organizing.
Resistance takes many forms: from collective (organized, hidden, or overt and violent forms of confrontation), to individual (routine, micro-political, silent and anonymous forms of challenge and struggle). Much of the focus among organization scholars has been in overt forms of collective, coordinated and planned resistance, particularly in the form of social movements. However, less attention has been devoted to other forms of both active resistance practices (for example, machine sabotage, foot dragging, boss napping, theft, whistleblowing, and ‘careful carelessness’) and more quiescent forms (for example, withholding information, fantasy and escape, cynicism, irony, satire, and constructions of alternative selfhood). While research has highlighted the myriad forms that resistance can take, the resistant subject is, in the main, still associated with low-level employees. Less attention has been given to other resistant identities: professional, managerial and institutional forms of resistance and misbehavior. Moreover, the way in which intent to resist is inscribed in resistance practices and subjectivities, and what differences forms of resistance can make to individuals or collectives, warrants greater empirical and theoretical consideration.
The aim of this Special Issue is to: (a) advance studies of resisting, resistance and resisters in and around organizations; (b) stimulate innovative theorizing on resistance in a variety of organizational, geographic, and cultural settings; (c) facilitate discussion and connections with resistance studies from diverse disciplines; and (d) develop understandings of engaged scholarship and possibilities for making a difference through resistance.
For that purpose, we invite theoretical and empirical papers, especially from the fields of anthropology, communication studies, cultural studies, industrial relations, management studies, political philosophy, political science, sociology, and others. We especially welcome papers that are situated in diverse geographies and disciplinary traditions, and that study and reflect upon different kinds of resistance: individual and collective; covert and overt; routine and ‘heroic stands’.
The following is a list of indicative, but not exhaustive, topic areas, all of which could be addressed:
On the anatomy of resistance:
Resistant practices: different expressions of resistance (e.g., whistleblowing, micro-political, misbehaviour, routine).
Resistant spaces and the appropriation of spaces: safe havens, free spaces, or working spaces; occupation of public spaces.
Resisting subjects: resistant identities and alternative selves, rewriting dominant discourses, owning resistance, redefining/regaining identities, (re)gaining dignity.
Embodied resistance: from boss napping and physical obstruction through to subversive clothing, bodily adornment, and forms of embodied parody.
On forms of resistance:
Power-resistance relations: oppositional, transversal, micro-political, and the relationship of resistance with agency.
New forms of activism and protest: online resistance and ancient/venerable/legacy forms of resistance, for example, by indigenous peoples.
Social movements
Resistance events, protest and spectacle.
Creative and community resistance. From the assertion of land rights, land grabs and guerilla gardening to creative forms of arts-based resistance.
Institutionalized forms of resistance and corporate misbehaviour, from ethical violations through to refusal, discrediting and repression of resisters who challenge forms of oppression and exploitation.
Academic resistance and the public intellectual
On resistance effects
Resistance and change: making a difference and making resistance count
Unintended consequences of resistance
Organizational responses to and/or countering of resistance
Submissions
To be considered for publication, papers must be submitted via the OS website at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/orgstudies by November 30, 2014. Please prepare manuscripts according to the guidelines shown on the OS website (http://oss.sagepub.com). All papers will be double-blindly reviewed following the journal’s normal review process and criteria. Any papers which may be accepted but will not be included in the Special Issue will be published in an ordinary issue at a later point in time.