organization

Theory and politics in organization

Spectres

Scanned from a faded old analogue print and bearing no date, this photo was taken at the first meeting of the recently formed ephemera editorial board in Chris’ living room. Someone had suggested we should capture the moment for twenty years hence, when people asked us about it. Weird.

Image 1: Image provided by the authors

Modes of organization

Most of the work leading to publication of this open issue has taken place during the pandemic’s overlapping phases of lockdown, containment, vaccination and (re)opening. Somewhere along the way, we, the editors of this open issue, came to embrace its diverse contributions through the theme of ‘Modes of organization’, as an oblique return to the perennial question ‘What is organization?’.

Digital parties and their organisational challenges

Amidst this era of political chaos, marked by the convergence of multiple economic, political, health and ecological crisis, the question of political organisation has come back as a matter of great urgency. The sheer scale of the challenges we face makes the basic logic of all forms of organisation - namely uniting the force of individuals in pursuit of a collective cause – key to the major mobilisation efforts that are required to address contemporary social problems.

América Latina / Latin America: Again (and again)

In 2006, ephemera published its last special issue dedicated to Latin America. After long 14 years, the publication of this new special issue can be read as a renewal and continuation of the themes addressed in the previous one. Why do we need another special issue? While each moment of organisation and struggle is unique, the turbulence in the current Latin American political context is evidence that there are political, economic, cultural and organisational issues that have been reoccurring on the continent, again and again.

Open issue

submission deadline  
30 Sep 2020
call for papers pdf  
PDF icon CfPOpenIssue.pdf

Issue editors: Nick Butler, Bernadette Loacker and Jette Sandager

ephemera welcomes open submissions, outside of special issues, that address themes relating to the theory and politics in organization.

Theory

ephemera encourages contributions that explicitly engage with theoretical and conceptual understandings of organizational issues, organizational processes and organizational life. This does not preclude empirical studies or commentaries on contemporary issues, but such contributions consider how theory and practice intersect in these cases. We especially publish articles that apply or develop theoretical insights that are not part of the established canon of organization studies. ephemera seeks to counter the hegemonisation of social theory and operates at the borders of organization studies in that it continuously seeks to question what organization studies is and what it can become.

Politics

ephemera encourages the amplification of the political problematics of organization within academic debate, which is today oftentimes de-politicised by the organization of thought within... more

Keywords  
theory
politics
organization

Ghostly matters in organization

Are organizations haunted places? Oh, yes indeed! Come with us into this ephemera special issue to explore the ghostly matters of organizing. 
This issue sets out to encounter and explore ghosts and ghostly matters in organizations and organizing. The contributions meet, hunt, sight and summon ghosts in various organizational settings: public parks, primary schooling, digital afterlives of scientific controversies, financial capital, old books and in quotas for women in management. 

‘Why is a raven like a writing desk?’

Damian O’Doherty’s Reconstructing organization is a wild tale of bob cuts and cats and talking chairs, set within the confines of Manchester airport. Rarely has a steel and concrete waiting room (for that is what airports are to its visitors, if not its employees) seemed more vivacious and colourful. Think Alice’s Wonderland with its strange and curious creatures, the author its likeable, excitable, Mad Hatter.

Occupy Nova Scotia

Introduction*

Standby as mode of organization

submission deadline  
15 Sep 2019
call for papers pdf  
PDF icon Standby as mode of organization.pdf

Issue Editors: Laura Kemmer, Annika Kühn, Vanessa Weber and Birke Otto

Standby, in its technical sense, refers to devices that are neither on nor off. It designates an operating state in which, despite apparent shutdown, energy continues to flow to guarantee sudden reactivation. However, the term does not only appear in  technological data sheets or user manuals. Standby increasingly acts as a mode of organizing in our daily life worlds. Comparable to the ‘sleep mode’ of a laptop, workers use non-active phases to recharge which, unlike designated breaks, constitute a state in which they must be ready to be re-activated at any time. While being on standby is a common experience amongst professionals such as medical doctors or service personnel, more and more sectors require such availability ‘on short call’. However, it is not only humans but also the material and technical elements of our infrastructures that remain under constant tension. From transport terminals... more

Keywords  
standby
sleep mode
in/activity
organization

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