Call for Applications

Purpose

The purpose of this Pre-Colloquium Development Workshop (PDW) is to foster an appreciation for the potential of Pragmatism as a practical philosophy of process amongst Postgraduate researchers, early career scholars and MOS academics curious about how to research worlds on-the-move.
 

Rationale

Simpson & den Hond (2022) argue that Pragmatism is highly relevant to organizational inquiries that seek to move and evolve with changing situations, offering as it does, a thoroughly articulated philosophical system that takes seriously the processuality of living. It also provides an ethical basis to guide the ways we can flourish together (Brinkmann, 2017) as we re-build our organizations and communities to be more resilient in the face of uncertain futures. The particular aspects of Pragmatism that we will focus on are firstly, its ontological commitment to the dynamic and emergent continuities of worlds on-the-move; secondly, recognition that all knowledge is contingent and fallible; and thirdly, human agency is always directed towards the making of futures-to-come.
 
During the workshop we will explore the potential for Pragmatist philosophy to inform ’post’ methods that are more-than-representational as they engage with the performative and precarious dynamics of lived experience. Such methods recognize that as researchers, we are far from being thoroughly pre-planned and objectively detached. In fact we are integral to evolving situations, meaning that we too are becoming in the process of researching. As we attune to the movements, flows and turning points of our research situations we develop a readiness to meet the unexpected through our creative practising. Becoming consciously part of worlds on-the-move requires us to notice differently (Simpson & Revsbæk, 2022) using all our senses, and informed by both arts-based ways of reading, writing and knowing, and by science.
 

Format

This PDW will be an immersive learning experience where our bodies become the primary instruments of our inquiries. We will set this experience in the context of Pragmatism’s key ideas, exemplify these through the work of members of our Pragmatism in Organization Studies community, and use group exercises to develop awareness of our senses, to attune to movements in conversation, and to experiment with writing fluid field notes. We will also ask that participants undertake some specified pre-readings before they join the workshop.
 

Application

Please submit – via the EGOS website – by April 30, 2023 a single document of application (.docx or .pdf file) that includes:

• A short letter of application containing full details of name, affiliation, and email;

• What interests you about this workshop (<250 words);

• A description of your own empirical researching (<250 words);

• Your reflections on the methodological challenges you face (<250 words).

We will accept a maximum of 30 participants.
 

References

• Brinkmann, S. (2017): “Humanism after posthumanism: Or qualitative psychology after the ‘posts’.” Qualitative Research in Psychology, 14 (2), 109–130.
• Simpson, B., & den Hond, F. (2022): “The contemporary resonances of Classical Pragmatism for studying organization and organizing.” Organization Studies, 43 (1), 127–146.
• Simpson, B., & Revsbæk, L. (eds.) (2022): Doing Process Research in Organizations: Noticing Differently. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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