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Calls
for Submissions
The
Arts in Organizational Research: Creative explorations of the workplace
THE
ARTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH:
CREATIVE EXPLORATIONS OF THE WORKPLACE
Edited by Soosan Daghighi Latham and J. Gary Knowles
Audience
The book is directed towards organizational scholars (university and community-based researchers, graduate, and undergraduate students) interested in creative approaches to depiction of organizational issues and practices as well as, organizational practitioners who engage in an integrative and evidence-based approach to their practice. It is intended to provide examples of scholarship that has used the arts, in some way, for creative explorations and representations of workplace research and practice. A central quality of the book is that it is inspirational and provocative to scholar readers and accessible to a broad band of practitioners who sense new possibilities of expression and learning with the inclusion of the arts, broadly defined in their work.
Focus
The book is conceived in response to the call for creative solutions to novel organizational complexities in the face of the changing North American workforce and workplace, as well as the general call to make scholarship more accessible to practitioners. This edited volume will point scholars toward innovative possibilities in understanding organizational dynamics and diversity of human behavior. It will illustrate some of the possibilities for creative thinking and practice. The chapters will reflect unconventional research approaches and processes that are inclusive of creative art forms (in the sense of the artistry in the work illuminating and enhancing the communicability of the subject matter). The intent of the book is to demonstrate the fusion of organizational research with artistic processes and to engage and enhance human creativity in new forms of communication so as to enhance practice-based implementations.
Contributions
As Editors we invite cross
discipline contributions from scholars and practitioners who embrace artistic
process as an approach to organizational study, research, and practice.
We seek contributions from authors who demonstrate the use of ‘art
forms’ as, for example:
• inspiration for research and practice-based activities,
• enhancing the possibilities for research processes, and/or
• representing research findings.
These contributions will draw on the arts in ways that enhance the possibilities
for understanding organizational and human behavior. There is considerable
scope for contributions. Chapters may be inclusive of research in organization
and leadership development, management, and business studies that run
across a range of functions including but not limited to marketing, strategy,
finance, operations, information technology and human resources.
Structure
The book has two distinct but
integrative elements which are fused together, in that they are not separate
parts:
• representations of workplace practice that are inspired by the
arts, and
• empirical studies that embrace alternative qualitative methodologies
grounded in the arts.
Section One: Inspired by the Arts
This section evidences artistic renditions of organizational knowledge that are presented in their original aesthetic form. The unifying element among these chapters is the influence of the arts in generating creativity and bringing about critical reflexivity. This section shows a broad range of media forms that transcend traditional text in order to contribute to organizational learning and the understanding of the human condition in creative ways. The art forms drawn on include film, video, new media, and performances such as improvisation, dance, stage plays, story telling, and music.
Selection of these short snapshot contributions will be limited to maximum of ten pieces (a total of 80 pages) each with 2800 words or equivalent of 8 pages. (Authors should consult with the editors regarding the form of the work and number of images proposed before submitting a chapter proposal.)
Section Two: Informed by the Arts
Chapters in this section include the empirical work of scholars who study the workplace environment and organizational practices using art forms to generate and convey meaning. As in Section One these art forms include film, video, new media, and performances such as improvisation, dance, stage plays, story telling, and music, for example. Specifically, these chapters showcase creative and qualitative means of conceptualizing organizational research, and / or innovative information gathering processes and representation grounded in the arts.
Shared qualities among these contributions include:
• Focus on the creative,
theoretical and methodological ways that the arts inform and influence
organizational research. Particular attention is given to ways of understanding,
generating and communicating knowledge relevant to a diverse workforce.
• Orientation that is central to understanding human behavior, communication
and interaction at the individual, group and organizational levels and
functions.
• Attention to the impact and influence of the artistic process
on organizational and individual effectiveness, creativity, learning and
/ or potential for transformation.
This section includes ten long chapters limited to 7000 words or equivalent of 20 pages each inclusive of images. (Authors should consult with the editors regarding the form of the work and number of images proposed before submitting a chapter proposal.)
Contributors
We are interested in receiving contributions. We are interested in completing he author list by mid summer 2009. We are hoping for a 2009 copyright date. If you wish to participate in this exciting project please contact the editors as soon as possible:
Please Contact:
Soosan Latham
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of The University of Toronto
E-mail: slatham@oise.utoronto.ca
J. Gary Knowles
Co-director, Centre for Arts-informed Research
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of The University of Toronto
252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1V6
E-Mail: jgaryknowles@oise.utoronto.ca
THE ARTS IN RESEARCHING MIGRANT LIVES: BIOGRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS TO MOVE AUDIENCES AND TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES
Edited by J. Gary Knowles and Valerie Damasco
Focus and Contributions
We invite contributions situated at the intersection of the arts and the exploration of emigrant / immigrant / migrant lives (including persons of non-status such as refugees or temporary workers). The underlying motivation for the edited volume is to show how researchers use biographical research methods complemented or infused with and by the arts to illuminate the complexity and challenges of migrant lives and so induce social change for the benefit of individuals, communities, and societies.
The chapters are to be accessible to a wide readership. They are directed towards scholars and practitioners as well as others interested in the portrayal of migrant lives including English-speaking migrants themselves.
There are two kinds of contributions. The first provides examples of how various art forms (and media) are used to depict the lives and challenges of migrants. These are relatively short but illustrative examples of the work of artists of various kinds and, together, are clustered in a section entitled Inspired by Artists. The second are accounts grounded in more formal, methods-based, research projects of various kinds (often university-supported) and are gathered in a section entitled The Art of Migrant Lives. Both kinds of manuscript are elaborated below:
Inspired by Artists
Chapters in this section highlight the work of an artist (or artists) in her or his (or their) depictions of migrant lives. Film, video, new media, performances of all kinds (including dance and stage plays / drama), two dimensional artwork (including community murals), literary fiction (the novel) and creative non fiction, and poetry are examples of possible art forms (see also below). The purpose of the section is to show the range of media forms used to explore lives and experiences, conditions and challenges, and to illustrate or emphasize the possibilities of inspiration for academic and arts-informed research work / scholarship. (Contributions are about 10 pages, double spaced, and 12-point font.)
The Art of Migrant Lives
Chapters in this section evidence the exploration of emigrant / immigrant lives from a variety of conceptual, theoretical, and procedural perspectives and for diverse purposes. The underlying and linking element is how the arts influences work that aims to induce social and political transformations. With the exception of some key chapters (which serve as kind of primers and section introductions) each account demonstrates the inspiration and purposes for making the arts an integral part of the researching work. How the arts influence decisions about audiences (and visa versa) for the work / scholarship and, then, how researchers go about representing elements of the work to identified audiences is foregrounded. As such, each contribution possess three qualities:
• a focus on the creative, theoretical, procedural / methodological ways that art influences researching into the human condition. In particular the contributions evidence creative means of conceptualizing the research as well as innovative, boundary-pushing information gathering processes. Particular attention is also given to ways of communicating the arts-inspired and –informed work to diverse audiences through representations which embrace the arts such as spoken word and radio productions (including story), published texts (such as literary poetic and even photographic forms), theatre (drama readers theatre and comedy for example) and other performative arts (such as dance and mime) three dimensional installations and sculpture, two dimensional visual art (including painting, drawing, and photography) exhibits and murals, film and new media (including video, web-based), and others such as the craft of quilting, graffiti, cartoons.
• an underlying orientation on the biographical study of lives (as opposed to cultures or institutions) so that life history, personal history / oral history, life narrative, life story, autobiography, autoethnography are the key orientations central to the perspectives of researching lives.
• attention to the emigrant / immigrant / migrant experience is essential but with the research account centred on the possibilities and challenges of illuminating lives lived through creative researching practices and arts-related forms of representation.
In all chapters within the section The Art of Migrant Lives the roles of the arts are foregrounded in the researching endeavours but the section (as a whole) is tied together by the biographical and the attention to matters of the individual experience of migration. Contributions are limited to 20, double-spaced, 12-point font manuscript pages including images (although all authors should first consult with the editors on the kinds and number of images proposed).
Interested authors should either send a proposal or inquire further of the editors as to the suitability of their work for the book before making a submission. Manuscript guidelines will then be provided. Proposals should be made no later than September 30, 2009 with final drafts received by January 15, 2010. Preproduction of the book will be completed by late Spring 2010 with a publishing date of 2010.
Please Contact:
Valerie Damasco
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of The University of Toronto
E-mail: vdamasco@oise.utoronto.ca
J. Gary Knowles
Co-director, Centre for Arts-informed Research
Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of The University of Toronto
252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1V6
E-Mail: jgaryknowles@oise.utoronto.ca
Program in Adult Education & Community Development Department of Adult Education & Counselling Psychology Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto 252 Bloor Street W, Toronto, ON M5S 1V6