ACSCOS Conference 2008 - UTS:School of Management Sydney NSW Australia

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 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 the UTS Temporary Accomodation Guide

Inquiries

Please direct inquiries to Professor Carl Rhodes.

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