ACSCOS 2008 – The
3rd Australasian Caucus of the Standing Conference on
Organizational Symbolism
Call for Papers:
Neophilia and Organization
University of Technology, Sydney
26-28 November 2008
Introduction
We are pleased to announce that the 3rd
Australasian Caucus of the Standing Conference on
Organizational Symbolism (ACSCOS) will be held at the
University of Technology, Sydney from 26 to 28 November
2008. Similarly to the two that preceded it in Brisbane in
2004 and in Auckland in 2006, this year’s ACSCOS is
being held as a meeting ground for those broadly interested
in what, for want of better words, is referred to as
critical and postmodern management and organization
studies. The colloquium is positioned under the ambit of
SCOS both in recognition of that body’s long and
innovative contribution to critical and avant garde
organization studies as well as to continue SCOS’s
excursions against its own Eurocentricism. We sincerely
hope that Australian and New Zealand colleagues will
respond to this call and help to generate a vibrant and
productive mechanism for exchange. We also hope that
colleagues from elsewhere in the world will join us in our
corner of the southern hemisphere just as we so often trek
to the north. More generally we look forward to a
stimulating, collegial, productive and supportive
gathering.
Theme
The theme of this year’s colloquium is
neophilia and organization. Neophilia is a fetishishtic
love of all that is new. Those afflicted with neophilia
become excited about novelty; they crave newness. Newness
to neophiliacs is a virtue to be upheld and a goal to
always strive for. The development of the modern world saw
the excitement for the new become a mainstay of western
culture. In a temporal reversal, it seems that today we
have inherited neophilia from the modern past – a
condition that permeates management practice and management
theory. The colloquium invites papers that consider
neophilia as it relates to management and organizations.
Indeed, management practice has long been afflicted with
the love of the new, whether it is for the creation of new
forms of organizations, a pathological desire for change
and its management, the scrambling after the latest
management fashion, or the strategic demand for
re-invention. Management theory is not immune to novelty:
indeed, it is often in the vanguard of both its promotion
and demise. Those of us engaged in this practice are under
constant pressure to define our work in terms of ‘new
knowledge’ in the assumption of an ever incremental
path of progress and accumulation, lest we be considered
old-hat luddites who fail to move with the times.
Mainstream management articulates this in terms of
creativity, change management, innovation, development and
growth. Those who theorize with a more critical bent are
not immune either – such ‘progressive’
theories venture into becoming, emergence, utopia, and in
days gone by even revolution.
In our region of the world we are the direct bearers of the
conflicting legacy of neophilia. We are part of the new
world, whether residing in the newly discovered unknown
land of the south (terra australis incognita) or the new
land once named after the Dutch province of Zealand. With
this newness came a disavowal of the old, a wiping clean of
the slate that created a terra nullis ripe for the creation
of the new as if from nowhere. Here in the new world,
neophilia went practical in its attempt to sweep clear the
old in the name of colonial expansion.
The colloquium seeks to trouble organization and management
in relation to both its neophiliac roots and its location
in tradition. We call for an appraisal of the value and
values of newness in our dynamic fields of practice and
theory, and an exploration of the intertwined relation
between newness, change and novelty on the one hand, and
tradition, permanence and inheritance on the other. Papers
are particularly welcomed that consider neophilia as it
relates specifically to our spatial location, cultural
tradition, and political position in Australasia.
Papers addressing the theme might consider the following
issues, although this list is far from exhaustive
• The manager as neophiliac
• Management theory in the space between difference
and repetition
• Avant-gardism in management theory and practice
• Management as a new academic discipline and its
relationship with older scholarly traditions
• Recycling, organizing and the simulacra of the new
• Neophilia and the process of both creating the new
and destroying the old
• The new managerial classes and social control
• New organizational forms and their relationship to
bureaucracy
• New technology and organization
• Old vs. new scholarly value in management research
• The business school and the new university
• ‘Brand New’: neophilia and consumption
• The new men and women of organizations
• Resistance to the new and resistance to the old
• Newness, identity and self-(re)creation in
organizations
• Organizational life and the desire to for
self-reinvention
• Organizational change and the pleasures of the new
• Postcolonialism, organization and neophilia
• Management fads and fashions
• Neophilia and neophobia and organizational conflict
• Technology and the neo-luddites
• Nostalgia and the striving for a new future in an
imagined past
• The temporal character of organizations
• Neophilia and organizational becoming
• Progress, the myth of progress and neophilia
• The relation between tradition, inheritance and
neophilia
• The history of neophilia in organizations
• Postmodernism and the modern fetish for newness
• Intolerance to neophilia
• Neophilia as old-fashioned
Guidelines for Submission
Papers and abstracts are invited that
directly address the colloquium theme, or address other
open issues. Two alternative forms of submission are
invited for the colloquium: abstracts of up to 800 words or
full papers of up to 7,000 words.
Full Papers: Full papers will be independently peer
reviewed. Accepted papers will be published in conference
proceedings.
Abstracts: Abstracts will be peer reviewed, and made
available to delegates prior to the colloquium.
Papers or abstracts should be submitted to Carl Rhodes at
carl.rhodes@uts.edu.au by 1 August
2008. Notification of acceptance will be given prior
to 5 September 2008.
Venue
The colloquium is being hosted by the School
of Management, University of Technology, Sydney and will be
held at the University’s Haymarket Campus located at
Cnr Quay Street & Ultimo Road, Haymarket Sydney.
Registration and Fees
Fees for the colloquium will be A$200.
Details of how to register will be posted closer to the
event.
Accommodation
The University of Technology’s School
of Management is located in close proximity to
Sydney’s China Town and Darling Harbour. While
participants will book their own accommodation, details of
nearby hotels are available at http://www.housing.uts.edu.au/hotels/index.html
Inquiries
Please direct inquiries to Professor Carl Rhodes at
carl.rhodes@uts.edu.au.
Local Organizing Committee
Carl Rhodes (Chair), University of
Technology Sydney
David Bubna-Litic, University of Technology Sydney
Stewart Clegg, University of Technology Sydney
Martin Kornberger, University of Technology Sydney
Tyrone Pitsis, University of Technology Sydney
Alison Pullen, University of Technology Sydney
Anne Ross-Smith, University of Technology Sydney
Regional Advisory Board
Craig Prichard, Massey University,
Palmerston North
Janet Sayers, Massey University, Auckland
Bob Westwood, University of Queensland, Brisbane
Julie Wolfram-Cox, Deakin University, Melbourne
Loong Wong, University of Canberra, Canberra