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EGOS Women’s Network Meeting 2022: Feminist repair: Critique & Hope as a Way Forward?

Convenors:
Olimpia Burchiellaro
University of Westminster, United Kingdom
Janet Zhang Johansson
Linköping University, Sweden
Sara Louise Muhr
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Mie Plotnikof
Aarhus University, Denmark
Sheena J. Vachhani
University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Call for Applications

The established agenda of diversity and inclusion with its concomitant discussions of means and ends has been sustained over the past year, as the Covid-19 pandemic, the resurgence of Black Lives Matter protests and the second wave of #MeToo have all continued to alert us to persistent structural inequalities and discrimination, particularly foregrounding the intersectionalities of gender, race, and class. Current movements, then, question the assumed progress of mainstream diversity and inclusion initiatives. While such initiatives are, undoubtedly relevant, necessary and needed, they also carry with them problems, complications and backlash. The narrative of success and the sole emphasis on individual performances, in particular, enables backlash to current movements as marked by, for example, #NotAllMen and #AllLivesMatter and complicates the struggle for recognition and equality.
 
Critique, therefore, continues to be a condition of possibility for feminist progress, as we must reflect upon the pervasive injustices of society as well as the inadequacies of our own response. Upholding a critical stance, however, can be tough and draining, and we need spaces for hope and care, spaces of feminist repair, that may fortify the continued push forward. At the EGOS Colloquium 2022, we hope to continue the development of such a space, which was initiated at the 2022 Colloquium by inviting to continuous discussion of our definitions of and desires for the EGOS Women’s Network Meeting:

  •  Who do we include and who do we privilege in the current organization?

  •  Who is a woman, and what is a network?

  •  How can we do things differently as women to initiate change?

  •  Might these terms risk reproducing problematic ideas of neoliberal empowerment?

  •  (How) might we envision alternatives?

  •  What are our hopes for the future?

  •  And how do we plan to get there?


This year’s EGOS Women’s Network Meeting seeks to put inclusivity and its potential backlashes at the forefront of our agenda through two rounds of discussions:

  1. First, we hope to provide a space for repair, for sharing stories and experiences from the last year, and for consideration of how these experiences have influenced our community.

  2. Second, we invite discussion of what a (post-) Covid-19, BLM, #MeToo EGOS Women’s Network might look like. How do we connect, network and collaborate with each other to tackle what urgent issues? Who do we include for forging strength and making changes for sustainable development? How do we equip ourselves (theoretically and practically) to confront new challenges?

     

How to register for the EGOS Women’s Network Meeting 2022?

Please submit – via the EGOS website – a brief document (word or pdf file) that contains your name, email address, and affiliation (university/institution).
 
Olimpia Burchiellaro is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, at the University of Westminster, United Kingdom. She is social media editor for ‘Gender, Work & Organization’ and member of the Gender and Sexuality Study Group at the Centre for the Study of Democracy. Olimpia’s work is published in journals including ‘Gender, Work & Organization’ and ‘Organization Studies’.
Janet Zhang Johansson is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Sweden. Her research interest spans an eclectic array of areas including leadership, identity, gender studies, as well as equality, diversity and social inclusion in workplaces. Janet’s current research focuses on feminist care ethics and its effects in organizational processes such as management, leadership, employee wellbeing, equality strategies and practices.
Sara Louise Muhr is Professor at the Department of Management, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Denmark. She is also Academic Director of the CBS Business in Society Platform ‘Diversity and Difference’. Her research focuses on critical perspectives on managerial identity and HRM, especially in relation to issues around coping with diversity and expectations in modern, flexible ways of working.
Mie Plotnikof is Associate Professor of Public Governance and Organization at the Department of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. Her work questions constitutive processes and politics of organizing by studying matters of discourse, subjectivity, difference, dis/order and power/resistance – often in the context of public governance. Mie is member of the editorial collective of the journal ‘ephemera – theory & politics in organization’.
Sheena J. Vachhani is a Reader in Work and Organization Studies at the School of Management and Co-Director of the Centre for Action Research and Critical Inquiry in Organisations (ARCIO), University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Her work centers around ethics, politics and difference in work and organization. Sheena has co-edited special issues of ‘Gender, Work and Organization’, ‘Organization’, and ‘Leadership’ and is an Associate Editor for ‘Gender, Work and Organization’.