Item 1:

The Notework editors…

Beatriz (Beatriz.Acevedo@anglia.ac.uk)
Anke (astrau@essex.ac.uk)
Ilaria (iboncori@essex.ac.uk )

…are introducing some changes to the SCOS Notework magazine. This year we are adopting a new online format to accommodate photos and make the sharing of our ‘serious fun’ much easier (you can find Notework archives here http://www.scos.org/page32/index.php ). Also, from now on there will be one main issue available online each year (in December), with some later ad hoc updates.

The 2012 SCOS Notework theme is Memory, so the editors would like to invite all of you new and old Scossers to send them impressions, memories, photos, feelings and accounts of your first ever SCOS conference. We would like to create an online repository of “Scossers’ memories” that speaks of who we are, what we do and why we enjoy going to SCOS so much.

Please send your contributions to Ilaria, Anke or Beatriz by 26 October 2012.


Item 2:

ACSCOS 2012 – The 5th Australasian Caucus of the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism

10-12 December 2012 - Metropole Hotel and Conference Centre, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia
Sponsored by Swinburne University of Technology and Monash University (Melbourne)

Dear Colleagues,
it is with great pleasure that we warmly invite you to join us in Melbourne for the ACSCOS 2012 Conference. Please note that the deadline for your abstract submission is 31 July 2012. Please see below the other deadlines of the Conference:

Important dates and info:
* Submission of abstract by 31 July 2012.
* Acceptance by 15 August 2012.
* Early registration by 30 September 2012 = AU$280
* Full registration from 1 October 2012 = AU$350.
* Conference address: memoryconference@swin.edu.au
* The Conference website:

http://www.swinburne.edu.au/business/ACSCOS

Please disseminate and forward the Call to colleagues and students who might be interested in attending the ACSCOS 2012 Conference.

Come to ACSCOS 2012 and meet a vibrant intellectual Community of Australasian scholars, in one of the most attractive cities in the world, located in the proximity of the Asian century, and embodying a multicultural art of living expressed through the beauty of difference and the value of belonging.

For any further info contact:
Michela Betta: mbetta@swin.edu.au
Susan Mayson: susan.mayson@monash.edu


Item 3:

Call for papers for special issue of Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management

Doing Dirty Research Using Qualitative Methodologies: Lessons from Stigmatized Occupations

Guest editors: Dr. Gina Grandy (Mount Allison University, Canada) ggrandy@mta.ca
Prof. Sharon Mavin (Northumbria University) sharon.mavin@unn.ac.uk
Prof. Ruth Simpson (Brunel University) R.Simpson@brunel.ac.uk

Objectives
There is a growing interest in exploring the complexities of stigmatized or dirty work(ers) in organization studies. Dirty work (Hughes, 1958) refers to occupations or tasks that are viewed as physically, socially or morally tainted (Ashforth and Kreiner, 1999). A diverse range of occupations can be considered dirty work (e.g., garbage collector, funeral directors, prison guards, exotic dancers, bill collectors), however, the extent to which a job is considered dirty is context-specific in that it may not be considered dirty in all places for all people (Dick, 2005). Despite the various streams of research and dirty work sites that have been explored to date, there is still much to understand about the experiences of dirty work(ers) for management and organisation studies. This special issue aims to bring together high quality, qualitative papers that critically address the issues surrounding dirty work(ers). The contribution of this special issue to the field would be as follows:
1. To detail illustrative and innovative qualitative methods of doing dirty work research.
2. To offer novel insights into understudied dirty work sites and the challenges of doing dirty research using qualitative methods.
3. To be the first dedicated journal issue in organization and management research literature entirely focused on dirty work.

Scope
We are interested in a wide range of perspectives on dirty work within organization and management studies that adopt qualitative methodologies. We are interested in qualitative papers that aim to contribute a mix of theoretical, methodological and empirical papers. In addition to QROM's regular expectations, criteria for inclusion would include: (1) originality of site, approach or subject and (2) a reflexive focus upon the experiences of researchers doing dirty work research.

An indicative, but not exhaustive, list of what we see as potential questions of interest is given below:
* What do researchers view as dirty work sites?
* What innovative methods have researchers utilized to study dirty work sites? What can we learn from these innovative methods for, and how can these methods be utilized in, 'clean' research sites?
* Are dirty workers' experiences similar to those experienced by individuals employed in non-stigmatized work?
* How do organizations that provide dirty work services maintain positive organizational identities?
* Do researchers who conduct research on dirty work sites become dirty researchers?
* Does organization culture serve as a resource in securing positive identities for dirty workers?
* What role does the media play in creating and sustaining dirty work?
* What can mainstream organization studies learn from dirty work research?

Papers submitted should be based no longer than 9000 words (including notes and bibliography) and based on qualitative material and qualitative methods and analysis, incorporating an explicit methodological focus and submitted online to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qrom by 15th December 2012.