Labyrinths of ‘Otherness’: Alternative Voices, Visual Accounts and Artistic Representations of Organisational Selves


Convenors:
Katarzyna Kosmala
University of West of Scotland
Deborah Blackman
University of Canberra, Australia
J. Miguel Imas
Kingston University, UK



Organisations can be thought of as labyrinths of otherness : the mysterious unveiling of who people are and how they act/behave in organisations. Eco (1994) in his reflections on his novel The Name of the Rose described three types of labyrinthine forms: 1) the classical labyrinth, 2) the mannerist maze, and 3) the net. The first type is the classical or Greek labyrinth of Theseus. In this labyrinth no one can get lost: you arrive at the centre and from the centre you reach the exit. If you solve this labyrinth, you may think you have found a thread, the thread of Ariadne itself. The second type is the mannerist maze: if you solve it, you find in your hands a kind of tree, a structure with roots, but with many blind alleys. In here there is only one exit, but you can also get it wrong. Then, you require an Ariadne’s thread to keep you from getting lost, reflecting, in Eco’s view, a model of trial-and-error processing and what do you need to go through it.

Most studies and theories in organisation (and management) reflect these first two types of labyrinths; theories and concepts are rooted and structured in rational terms and concern a search for truths that construct the other and provide ready-made solutions to solve problems for the other in organisations. Knowledge then is abstracted and focused in processes, abstract and philosophical notions of who we are, why we do things, and how we should perform as co-workers, managers or employees. Even critical theories of organisation operate at this level. As these representations are founded in Western philosophical traditions, emerging economies, informal economies, alternative economies or economies-in-making are predominantly categorised and/or contextualised under these premises reflecting upon dualisms formed by a distancing: we and them (periphery vs. centre; local vs. global, etc.). Worse, they may even be ignored and their local knowledge unattended to and understanding of life lost. The third of Eco’s labyrinths is the net, or what Deleuze and Guattari (2003) define as the rhizome. The rhizome (labyrinth) reflects a completely different form: it is constructed in such a way that every path can be connected with every other one. It has no centre, no periphery, no exit as it is potentially infinite. In Borges’ (2000) Library of Babel as well as in Eco’s In the Name of the Rose, this type of labyrinth of ideas/knowledge seems an impossibility to handle as something else always emerges in the net, within the interconnected spaces between actors. In this labyrinth we do not learn about others by employing our traditional rooted methodologies or theories to unveil and construct the other. This becomes more apparent when we refer to local and indigenous actors who occupy a plateau that does not reflect the one occupied by us as researchers or others in the dominant ‘developed’ world. In order to make sense of the spaces and the emerging ideas within this labyrinth we will need to co-construct, co-author, co-represent and co-distribute, exploring the infinite possibilities that exist.

This type of labyrinth opens a potential plateau for different interpretations of the other, a place where the other can find her body and voice, and speak in order to be heard. This labyrinth equally challenges our traditional methodological postures in order to create or study the other. Here, the other may operate in an entirely different space than us, therefore challenging our own understanding of life, including organisational life. What may become clear in this labyrinth is that to find an exit it is not necessary to find a clear route, only be able to recognise where there is a beginning and where there are connections that lead towards the exit. An explanation may not be possible, but to find where there is a space in understanding to be filled should be enough to move forward within the labyrinth and enable the other to pick up the route and work together towards an exit, to embark on a journey together.

Therefore, we would like to make a call for contributions to this conference that will explore the notions of the other and otherness not from our ‘universally Western’ accepted academic practices but by engaging in alternative ways with the spaces in the labyrinth. The focus should be upon co-constructed artefacts of any kind that may not explain or validate ideas about the organisational selves and working lives but will enable a movement within the net. All forms of submission are welcome, they may include:

• Explorations of selfhoods, their emotional, embodied and cognitive states in the labyrinths of organizations
• Visual and narrative accounts of being and non-being in the organizational/institutional realms
• Representations of identifying and dis-identifying with working lives
• Poetic, enacted and performative otherness
• Invisible, excluded or informal aspects of identity at work as potential resource at a risk of a loss
• Hybrid (working) self as a fractured and fragmented puzzle

We would like the submission to incorporate not only narratives in the most obvious forms of academic papers but also to include:

• visual representations via lens of arts, including art installations, interventions, photography as well as other forms
• documentaries and films
• accounts based on a movement including performance, dance and play
• musical forms

Finally, we would like not only to address issues that matter in the theory construction of our work, but also to establish a basis upon which to construct an identity of organisations that enriches rather than impoverishes the way we think about all forms of communities and the world. In this way, we believe, contributions to tackle topical issues such as the environment and socio-economic uncertainties at work and at home for those situated in the zones of insignificance, including emerging economies, areas of economic exclusion and fringes of the developed world.

References

Bakhtin, M. (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Bakhtin, M. (1986) Speech, Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
Bauman, Z. (2004) Identity: Conversations with Venedetto Vecchi. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Borges, J. L. (2000) Labyrinths. London: Penguin Books.
Deleuze,G. & Guattari, F. (2003) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. London: Continuum.
Eco, U. (1994) Reflections on The Name of the Rose. London: Minerva.
Eagleton, T. (1990) The Ideology of the Aesthetic. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1973) Adventures of the Dialectics. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press.
Salgado, S. (1997) Workers: Archeology of Industrial Age. US: Aperture
Salgado, S. (2000a) Serra Pelada. France: NATHAN.
Salgado, S. (2000b) Migrations. US: Aperture

Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México. 2009