POSTPONED: Workshop: Process and Practice Perspectives Addressing Grand Challenges

UPDATE (27/3/20): Because of the current concerns around COVID-19 in Australia, the Process and Practice Perspectives Workshop is being postponed to later this year. Thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to seeing you when we confirm a rescheduled date.

Background

UQ Business School’s Process & Practice Studies (PPS) and Business Sustainability Initiative (BSI) presents a one-day workshop taking process and practice perspectives to address grand challenges.

During the last decades both process and practice perspectives have steadily increased in popularity within organization and management studies. They emphasize “materiality”, “embodiment”, “relationality”, “enactment” and “performativity”, as a way to better understand and explain organisational phenomena. These perspectives have contributed to advancing areas such as strategy, leadership, organizational knowledge and learning, organizational change, technology use, sustainability, and identity. Despite their rise in popularity, it is not always clear what process and practice perspectives actually stand for, their similarities and differences. Furthermore, how can process and practice perspectives support management scholars in their endeavours to address critical social issues and grand challenges of our time, such as climate change, inequality, and poverty alleviation.

Aim

The overall aim of this workshop is to delve deeper into what process and practice perspectives involve, and how they can be effectively used in organization studies. A particular focus in this workshop is how process and practice perspectives can be used to address grand challenges, such as reducing unethical business practices, pay inequality, carbon footprint, unsustainable consumption, and leveraging technological innovations.

Specifically, the workshop will address the following issues:

• What are the similarities and differences between a process and practice perspective and their respective philosophical stances?
• What do we gain from a practice and process perspective compared to traditional perspectives when it comes to addressing grand challenges?
• What aspects of such large-scale social issues best lend themselves to a practice and/or process perspective and what unique insights might we expect to gain from such study?
• How do we actually do research following a practice and process perspective?

Program

The workshop is designed to provide an opportunity to discuss practice and process with a panel of leading scholars who have been instrumental in developing practice and process perspectives in organisation studies. The program will include a mixture of keynote speakers, panel discussions, and round table discussions in which participants will discuss and scrutinize each other’s work. Keynote speakers are Professor Jen Howard-Grenville, Judge Business School (University of Cambridge) and Professor Professor Paula Jarzabkowski (UQ Business School & Cass Business School). Panel members to be announced closer to the time.  

Who should attend?

This workshop is designed for those who already are using or planning to apply a process/practice perspective in their research, but want a better understanding of what process and practice perspectives stand for, in terms of philosophical underpinning, methodology, application range, and what they offer organization studies. The format of the workshop is twofold. First, it provides an overview of practice and process perspectives and how they can address grand challenges. Second, it offers attendees to present and discuss their work with like-minded academics and getting feedback from leading scholars.

Location and application

The workshop will be held at The University of Queensland, CBD Campus. A workshop dinner will be held on Tuesday night.

Participation is complimentary, but strictly limited to 50 places. In order to apply as a contributor, please submit your abstract no later than Friday 21 February 2020 to Shannon Colville. Abstracts are to be 500 word max, outlining the main idea of the research you would like to discuss at the workshop. In addition, we would like you to submit two questions you have regarding challenges and issues related to engaging with and doing practice and process studies. We will incorporate your questions to shape the panel discussion and the conversations during the workshop.

Applicants will be notified of their acceptance by 2 March and invited to submit a short paper of max 3,000 words. Paper submission is required no later than Friday 21 March.

For more information about the workshop please contact Shannon Colville.