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Call for Abstracts: Theorizing Resistance

  • 1.  Call for Abstracts: Theorizing Resistance

    Posted 09-25-2009 06:09

    Gender, Work and Organization
    6th international interdisciplinary conference
    21st – 23rd June, 2010
    Keele, Staffordshire, UK

    Call for abstracts

    Theorizing resistance: practicing gender, change and resistance

    Stream Convenors
    Marieke van den Brink, Nijmegen School of Management, Netherlands
    Elisabeth Kelan, King's College, London, UK
    Julia Nentwich, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

    The aim of this stream is to advance contemporary thinking about gender and organizational theory by
    bringing together international scholars with an interest in change and resistance towards gender
    equality initiatives in organizational settings.
    Despite decades of equal-opportunities legislation and affirmative action initiatives, progress towards
    gender equality in organizations remains painfully slow, regardless of organizational or national
    context. While open forms of resistance and backlash, for instance micro-political actions (Van den
    Brink 2009), have not at all disappeared, more subtle forms of resistance have developed lately. The
    (liberal) discourse of seeing (gender) equality as a major achievement of modernity provides a strong
    normative background for ignoring and delegitimizing factual inequalities in modern societies. In fact,
    it seems that the arena of gender discrimination itself has changed. This change has been described as
    'rhetoric modernisation' (Wetterer, 2003), 'dethematisation' (Müller, Müller-Franke, Pfeil & Wilz,
    2007) or 'gender fatigue' (Kelan, 2009), thereby identifying a strong ideological dilemma between
    strong believes in equality while ignoring the facticity of inequality. On the one hand, gender
    discrimination is acknowledged as something possible but unacceptable within the workplace, but on
    the other hand it is framed as something that has been dealt with in the past and that is no longer
    relevant for day-to-day interactions (Czarniawska & Calás, 1997). There is a clash between the
    rhetoric around gender diversity and the actual implementation of these initiatives in daily situations,
    which provides an interesting setting for feminist inquiry in the context of (multinational)
    organizations.

    We would like to explore approaches theorizing resistance as social practices performed
    in contexts, specific to events, actors and other practices (Prasad and Prasad, 2000). This track invites
    theoretically and/or empirically informed papers from different disciplines that deepen our
    understanding of change, resistance, discursive, rhetoric and micro-political practices that impede
    gender equality on an everyday basis. We welcome papers that:
    –     develop theoretical approaches to researching power and resistance in organizations
    –     provide an analysis of any of the multiple forms of resistance or power struggles towards
    gender equality policies and/or practices
    –     explore the micro-politics of resistance
    –     suggest how changes in culture might be facilitated
    –     engage feminist theoretical perspectives on resistance and change
    –     explore the role of different forms of masculinities in change processes
    –     discuss intersectionality and its importance for organizational change

    Abstracts of approximately 500 words (ONE page, Word document, single spaced, excluding
    references) are invited by 1    st November 2009 with decisions on acceptance to be made by stream
    leaders within one month.     All abstracts will be peer reviewed. New and young scholars with 'work
    in progress' papers are welcomed. In the case of co-authored papers, ONE person should be identified
    as the corresponding author. Note that due to restrictions of space, multiple submissions by the same
    author will not be timetabled. Abstracts should be emailed to     elisabeth.kelan@kcl.ac.uk
    julia.nentwich@unisg.ch mcl.vandenbrink@fm.ru.nl Abstracts should include FULL contact
    details, including your name, institutional affiliation, mailing address, and e-mail address. State the
    title of the stream to which you are submitting your abstract.