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Mario Biagioli - University of California at Davis
School of Law and Science & Technology Studies Program
"Patent Imagination: Business Models, Methods, and the Dematerialization of Invention"

Nigel Thrift - University of Warwick
Geography
"The Insubstantial Pageant’

Paolo Quattrone  - IE Business School
François-Régis Puyou - Audencia, Nantes School of Management
Chris Mclean  - Manchester Business School

Following the success of the 1st Imagining Business Workshop in Oxford, 2008, this second event seeks to examine ideas and approaches which go beyond a focus upon text in order to explore the impact of images, pictures, signs, sounds and passions on the process of organizing. A process which also goes beyond traditional ideas of business and into many areas of our lives. The backdrop of this workshop is Segovia, near Madrid at the IE University Campus (see : 
http://www.ie.edu/university/location.php?seccion=campus). One of the most beautiful, monument-filled cities in Spain with  medieval structures, narrow streets, and a mixture of Muslim, Jewish and Christian cultures providing a wonderful environment to examine the assemblage of different visions, ideas and perspectives.

By bringing together academics from a wide range of disciplines and approaches (e.g. organizational theory, accounting, anthropology, geography, art, sociology, communication studies, architecture, philosophy, social studies of technology, etc...), this event will provide an arena in which to discuss and debate different ways of imagining the complex process of organizing.

The workshop will include an exploration of the many images and visuals that enter our lives in many different forms and through various events and occasions. As we walk down the street of a new city, we navigate our way around an assortment of practices and objects (e.g. maps, signs, people giving directions, coloured lines, roads, lights, tom toms, etc.), as we listen to the media, we are bombarded with different images and ideas relating to our everyday lives, and finally, within the workplace, each and every day we engage in many different practices of imagining. A focus on imagining business shifts our attention beyond the text (i.e. the dominance of written records both in the area of research and the analysis of everyday practice) and towards the visual. In addition to exploring ideas of the visual, this second edition of the Imagining Business workshop also welcomes papers exploring various material and aesthetic artefacts, oral/aural and olfactory relations, sensations and affect, as well as many other possibilities.

Some examples of areas of interdisciplinary interest include the:

- role of images, standards and visual practices in the process of organizings of many kinds including the performative role of images and inscriptions;
- role of management practices in creating certain visions of organization and strategy;
- role of Information & Communication Technologies in prompting action and accountabilities;
- different ideas of design with multi-sensory research agendas relating to an ‘architecture of the senses’ (e.g. hearing, smell, taste, and touch) and alternative ways of engaging in the design process;
- role of educative and pedagogical discourses in the creation of entrepreneurial mindsets;
- ways of mapping controversies in science, technology and policy making; the role of images, signs and icons in policy making and governmental decision making;
- rethinking ideas of time and space in relation to various practices and techniques;
- the role of media services in creating ‘a contact zone’ for diasporas and further ideas inspired by geography, urban planning or topology;
- visual semiotics and different approaches to visible forms (pictures, videos, objects…)
- inclusions and exclusions whereby certain subjects and objects become foregrounded and others appear diluted, assuaged and melt away into darkened spaces;
- other interdisciplinary approaches to imagining (e.g. the articulation of experiences and issues relating to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness through artwork and images, with neuroscientists, computer experts and artists working together to create different ways of visualising and articulating the brain and various forms of imagery relating to the mind and cognition)

While this provides a diverse list relating to the study of practices and objects with regards to the imagining process, this is merely a snapshot of possible examples as clearly the potential list is much more extensive.

Therefore, we would welcome abstracts (1500-2000), extended abstracts (2000-3000 words) and draft papers. The format for discussion will include both traditional paper presentations and alternative and non-traditional forums (e.g. performance, exhibition, panel, discussion group, etc).

The submission deadline is OVER
Notification of acceptance will be sent in February 2011. 
 

To download the workshop main programme, please click HERE

To download the workshop parallel session programme, please click HERE