Call for papers: Movements of transition: hegemonies, resistances, alternatives

here's a fascinating call for papers that i just got.


Call For Papers
>
>'Movements of Transition: hegemonies, resistances, alternatives'
>
>A stream at 'Reconnecting Critical Management', The Fifth Critical
>Management Studies Conference, Manchester Business School, 11-13 July
>2007
>(http://www.cms5.org)
>
>::Stream Description::
>
>The transition from 'socialism' to a free market economy has probably
>been one of the most pivotal events over the past two decades,
>affecting the lives of millions of people inside and outside the
>countries and nations involved in this process. This transition has
>been part of a wider movement towards the widening and deepening of the
>logic of neo-liberal states, free markets and capitalist management
>around the world. In popular imagination this societal change process
>has been frequently portrayed as the archetypal journey from serfdom to
>freedom with certain teleological references to the 'end of history'.
>Reflecting the Zeitgeist of drastic transformations set in
>motion by the disintegrating Soviet model (and its variants), the free
>market ideology has captured the minds of its reluctant allies and foes
>alike. Unanimously embraced as an antidote to the inefficiency and
>irresponsiveness of state bureaucracies, and (the only) tool for wealth
>creation, but also as an emancipatory political force - the free market has
>been elevated to the status of the new master signifier in societal
>discourse. In this new 'post-historical' world the free market and its
>associated capitalist management processes in the state, economy and civil
>society have become the hegemonic articulation of organisation as such,
>promising freedom, democracy, wealth and even equality, responsibility and
>security.
>
>Perhaps such grand transformation with high moral underpinnings at
>stake justifies the 'transitory' human costs: the tears, broken dreams
>and anxieties; the massive unemployment, religious hatred and
>nationalist wars; the military and daily violences, poverty and
>disillusions. Perhaps the TV images transmitted to unsuspected
>consumers in the making - those 'poor' souls who are yet to fully
>experience the promised land of Big Macs and big Mercs - might
>eventually materialise turning the catastrophic wastelands of the
>present into dreamlands of the future. Perhaps the many liberations
>that privatisation of state industries have brought about together with
>privatising common fates has been a price worth paying. Or we are made
>to believe so...
>
>In contrast to prevailing ideologies, we would like to question this
>notion of transition as an imposition of historical, a-historical or
>pseudo-historical truths onto our reality and subjectivity. We see
>transition - transformation, reconfiguration, repositioning - as a
>particular change process, a personal and collective one at the same
>time, that is concerned with the real opening of and in society. Moving
>beyond nostalgia and critique, we look out for rupture/s in the
>symbolic order and wish to interrogate imaginary institutions of
>contemporary consumerist society with the hope of experiencing the
>real; the real being defined as a resistance to dominant discourses
>pertaining to market fundamentalism and neo-liberalism, and as a quest
>for alternative ways of being, organising and constituting public
>space.
>
>Our aim is to challenge the distortion that equates collective and
>agonistic
>forms of action with tyranny and coercion, and to identify ways of
>resisting
>hegemonic discourses and share alternative experiences. We are interested
>in
>movements of transition that point to speculative openings: new ways of
>social organising, new ways of producing, new ways of being. We are excited
>to explore the creativity and innovation of social movements in all parts
>of
>the world resisting the neo-liberal market logic and, at the same time,
>experimenting with the organisation of new, alternative forms of life.
>
>Trying to make sense of a wider change process involving new forms of
>citizenship and collective engagement, we would like to invite
>contributions that problematise, re-think and re-define different
>notions of transition,
>including:
>
>- The historical epoch of social transformation from what was known as
>'real
>existing socialism' to today's (post-)transition market economies -
>examining and evaluating the significance of social and organisational
>transformations in light of foreclosed and recreated opportunities for
>radical movements of transition;
>- The liberalisation and structural adjustment policies implemented in many
>developing countries around the world - examining and evaluating the human,
>social, cultural and economic costs involved and documenting the movements
>of resistance against neo-colonial oppressions;
>- The 'successful' Marx-to-Mao-to-Market transition as experienced in China
>- teasing out the historical complexities and hidden costs of this change
>process with particular emphasis on the different types of resistances
>possible in today's Chinese society;
>- The 'forced' and violent transition in countries such as Afghanistan,
>Iraq
>and Kosovo - not to mention Nicaragua, Panama, Grenada and the many other
>countries where Western hegemony has invaded foreign territories in the
>name
>of liberation, freedom and democracy.
>
>While we would not like to confine our inquiry to the historical
>transitions
>outlined above, we would particularly welcome analyses of:
>
>- Comparative aspects of transition across countries and geographical
>areas and between different models of transition (e.g. 'successful' and
>'failed' ones);
>- The roles of, and the relationships between, the state, economy and
>civil society in organising societal transitions and change processes;
>- The mechanisms for establishing hegemonic regimes and organising
>counter-hegemonic resistance movements;
>- The role of particular organisations (e.g. NGOs, charities, affinity
>groups, direct action groups, media organisations) in facilitating
>hegemonic as well as counter-hegemonic transitions;
>- The modes of organisation in what can be regarded as alternative states,
>economies and civil societies.
>
>We are inviting a range of creative and innovative engagements
>including contributions such as:
>
>- Theoretical papers presenting counterintuitive and provocative
>analyses and ideas using a range of frameworks (e.g. feminist,
>post-colonial, neo-Gramscian, post-Marxist, etc);
>- Empirical engagements presenting data and texts in novel and
>non-conventional ways;
>- Individual accounts by researchers, practitioners, artists and
>activists presenting their own personal and auto-biographic stories and
>experiences of transitions;
>- Artistic projects using techniques of performance, video, poetry and
>photography;
>- Activist accounts of social movement organising, resistance and
>alternative institution building.
>
>::Details of the Convenors::
>
>Dr Marianna Fotaki
>Manchester Business School
>marianna.fotaki@mbs.ac.uk
>
>Dr Steffen Böhm
>University of Essex
>steffen@essex.ac.uk
>
>Professor John Hassard
>Manchester Business School
>john.hassard@mbs.ac.uk
>
>Professor Maria Ceci Misoczky
>School of Administration, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Porto
>Alegre, Brasil mcamisoczky@ea.ufrgs.br
>
>Neboj¹a Milikic
>Editor of 'YEAST', the youth web-magazine for politics and culture
>Belgrade, Serbia n_milikic@hotmail.com
>
>::Timeline for paper submission::
>
>Abstracts to Convenors (e-mail attachment) - 6 November 2006
>
>Decisions on acceptance/rejection communicated to authors - 14 February
>2007
>
>Full papers to Convenors (e-mail) - 28 April 2007
>
>::Abstracts must contain the following information::
>
>- Authors (including affiliation and contact details, with lead author
>clearly indicated)
>- Stream to which the abstract is submitted
>- Title
>- Body text
>- Maximum 300 words
>- All abstracts must be single-spaced, prepared using at least an
>11-point Ariel font, with a left margin at least 1 inch for binding and
>be formatted for A4 paper (21cm * 29.7 cm).