*** Apologies for any cross-postings! ***

———————— 
​Call for Abstracts​

​​
Gender, Work and Organisation,

10th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference Sydney, 13-16 June 2018

 

​​
Stream title:
 
M
​​
ind the gap: Gend
​​
er, embodiment and identity in organizations

Convenors:

Andri Georgiadou, University of Hertfordshire, ENGLAND 

Leopoldina Fortunati, University of Udine, ITALY

Ahu Tatli, Queen’s Mary University, ENGLAND


Generally, in the debate related to work and organization the human body is considered and discussed as the site of the labour-force. However, there are other layers of the body that deserve to be explored in-depth. Social scientists have conceptualized body as a project individuals work on and alter as a means of identity construction and reconstruction (Schouten, 1991; Shilling, 2003). Furthermore, body has largely been treated as a medium that helps people explore and experience the world (Meamber & Venkatesh, 1999). One’s perception of his or her body is considered interdependent with social relationships and control factors that constrain this perception of one’s body in conformity with socio-cultural ideals, models and normative as well as moral accounts (Thompson & Hirschman, 1995). Construction of body and the associated body image therefore embody a process of socialization and are means of signifying one’s self-worth, status in the presentation of the self and in social relationships and lifestyles, and exertion of control over one’s self (Thompson & Hirschman, 1995).

In the feminist critique of the mind-body split and its dualistic counterparts: male/female, culture/nature, public/private, human/animal, there is also an ambition to counterbalance and transgress the dualistic thinking present in both scientific explanations and disciplinary boundaries. The body has become a veritable hot spot, marking itself as a boundary concept that forcefully disrupts established disciplinary identities and fields of investigation. The body is also a locus where nature and culture meet and it refuses to accommodate any easy distinction between these two terms. Instead, the very presence of the body demands a radical rethinking of the meaning of both nature and culture.

Bodies make themselves present at the very core of a range of different embodied phenomena, such as emotions, desires, identity, and agency. Embodiment in its most simple understandings means the lived experience of human beings, an experience which always bridges “the mind” and “the body”, “the natural” and “the cultural”. Embodied beings are never determined only by their material, or by their

social and cultural conditions, but at the same time they are never fully unbound or completely elastic. The historical and spatial differences, changes and stabilities in how bodies and embodiment are perceived and understood, provide insight into both the potentials and constraints of future body theory.

This stream aims to foster a discussion about the mutual entanglement of gender, embodiment and identity in organizations. The call is therefore directed to those who want to explore the embodiment of gender from a broad range of different disciplines and theoretical perspectives with the common aim of approaching the body both as a site for transgressive encounters and as actively participating and shaping such encounters. We invite theoretical, empirical and methodological contributions that explore the lived embodiment of employees and managers – how gendered embodiment affects bodily feelings and relational and organizational experiences at work, and how the body constitutes an active medium of management and organization. Contributions from different fields are welcomed. We also encourage an interdisciplinary approach, acknowledging that gendered embodiment has numerous intellectual roots and allies. The following issues are indicative, but not exhaustive, of our field of focus:


·      The lived embodiment and bodily experiences of people at work and in organisations

·      Individuals’ own embodied perceptions of their work environment and of themselves within it; how far cognitive activities and knowledge work builds no human embodiment.

·      How organisations marginalise qualities and aspects of embodiment associated with women.

·      The material circumstances that compel or constrain embodied gender performativity.

·      The gendered division of labour and its relationship to embodiment as the materiality of gender subjectivity.

·      The bodily feelings and experiences that are spurred as individuals express or hide their gender and as they interact with others.

·      How various forms of transgender embodiment intersect with other forms of bodily, socio-corporeal and socio-demographic difference, including race, sexuality, age and (dis) ability.

·      The social construction of transgender in the institutional arrangements of organizations, industries and fields.

·      The bodily techniques and practices that employees and managers mobilize in expressing – or hiding- (trans) gender.
 

For submission details go to: www.mq.edu.au/events/gwosydney

Papers from the stream will be selected for a special issue proposal of the Gender, Work and Organization journal.

For stream enquiries please contact: andrigeorgiadou.ag@gmail.com
​. Click here for more information. ​






Dr. Andri Georgiadou, FHEA, ACyHRMAPhD, MSc, MBA, PgCert, BSc | Assistant Professor in Human Resource Management

Email: [log in to unmask] 

Website: http://andrigeorgiadou.wordpress.com 

---

Call for papers: Gender, Work and Organisation Conference Sydney 2018

https://andrigeorgiadou.wordpress.com/2017/08/18/gender-work-and-organisation-conference-sydney-2018-call-for-papers/

 

Call for chapters contributions: Diversity in Diversity Management

https://andrigeorgiadou.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/chapter-contribution-for-emerald-book-diversity-in-diversity-management/

 

Special issue: International Perspectives on Securing Human and Social Rights and Diversity Gains at Work in the Era of Global Economic Crisis and Austerity

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/(ISSN)1740-4762/asset/homepages/2.9.16_Final_Special_Issue_Call_Vassilopoulou_Kyriakidou_Georgiadou_and....pdf?v=1&s=51b91e5cb0d9008e2de9d0dd30827cb394e9c91d&isAguDoi=false 



​​





Virus-free. www.avast.com




____
AIB-L is brought to you by the Academy of International Business.
For information: http://aib.msu.edu/community/aib-l.asp
To post message: [log in to unmask]
For assistance: [log in to unmask]
AIB-L is a moderated list.