Citation
(2007), "Special issue on Bourdieu and domination within and between organizations", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 20 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj.2007.05920eaa.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Special issue on Bourdieu and domination within and between organizations
Guest Editors
Damon Golsorkhi, Ecole Sup?rieure de Commerce de Rouen, Francee-mail: damon.golsorkhi@groupeescrouenfr
Bernard Leca, Nottingham University Business School, UKe-mail: Bernard.Leca@nottigham.ac.uk
Michael Lounsbury, University of Alberta School of Business, Canadae-mail: michael.lounsbury@ualberta.ca
Carlos Ramirez, HEC, France,e-mail: ramirezc@hec.fr
A special issue of the journalOrganization: The Critical Journal of Organization, Theory and Society
From his earliest work on the sociology of Algeria to his late academic and political publications, the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu can be labeled as a sociology of domination. His theoretical apparatus has served first and foremost the project of analyzing social hierarchies and to explain how they are produced and reproduced. Meanwhile, in the past thirty years Bourdieu's theory and concepts have been gaining increasing currency in organization theory, if one judges by the rate of citations in major journals in the organization and management field. Cites to the French sociologist, in particular to his practice- based approach, are everywhere, from knowledge management to strategic management.
There is, however, a paradox in the intersections between Bourdieu's work and the interests of organizational researchers deploying it. Throughout his life's work, Bourdieu's theories had no interest in serving organizations. His theoretical approach would consider organizations, at the very least, as a screen that obfuscates real relations of domination. With this paradox in mind, from our perspective, there is still much work missing in organization studies that encompasses all of Bourdieu's theoretical concerns and that tackles essential issues behind Bourdieu's intellectual endeavours. Among those, some of his works are remarkably explicit on issues of domination, including social judgement, the reproduction of inequalities, the maintenance of dominant elites or masculine domination. His intellectual engagement with neoliberalism and globalization or his involvement in campaigns in support of undocumented immigrants and the unemployed are congruous with his enlightenment of domination mechanisms.
This special issue, therefore, intends to advance reflections on new insights that Bourdieu's work may bring to organizational analysis by taking on board the French sociologist's endeavours to uncover domination mechanisms and develop a critical sociology. We would therefore welcome conceptual and empirical papers that use Bourdieu's focus on domination to examine issues of organizational life. Some possible themes to consider include, but are not restricted to:
The naturalization of domination within and between organizations:
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Why do/may agents repeatedly act against their interests?
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How does language become a means of domination?
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How does the organizational Doxa contribute to the naturalization of domination?
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The production and reproduction of domination structures.
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How to account for the existence of dominant agents in a field?
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What are the mechanisms behind struggles around different forms of capital?
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How does the organizational illusion contribute to the reproduction of domination?
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Could dominated agents improvise and get around dominant agents?
The expression of symbolic violence:
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How is the symbolic capital constructed and transformed into symbolic violence?
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What are the interplays between symbolic violence and symbolic capital in organizational fields regarding gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, and so on?
The role of the macromicro dynamic in the constitution of domination:
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How do agents' positions in a field constitute a dominant/ dominated position and determine their habitus and practices?
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How can dominated agents make evolve their positions in a field?
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How is the distribution of different forms of capital maintained in a field?
Submission
Papers must be sent electronically by 3 March 2008 to organization@wbs.ac.uk as Word attachments, indicating ''Bourdieu And Domination Within And Between Organizations'' in the subject line of the e-mail. Manuscripts should be prepared according to the guidelines published in organization and on the journal's website.
Papers should be about 8,000 words, and will be blind reviewed following the journal's standard review process. For further information, contact one of the guest editors: