We hope that you'll consider joining us in Liverpool at EGOS! With the help of many members of this community Piera Morlacchi, Frank den Hond, and Jared M. Poole collaboratively developed a sub-theme that we hope can garner broad interest among pragmatist scholars and throughout our discipline. Please find the call here.
The conference theme revolves around play. What emerged as we developed our call was that one of the more intriguing aspects of play is that it stands in a certain contrast to problematic situations (this is no time for play, we have a problem to solve!). And in a world on fire, beset by political, geopolitical, economic, technological, and ecological crises, the relation between play and so-called "serious business" demands investigation.
Pragmatism is ideally suited for this task because its origins in the United States lie with intellectuals and activists who were seeking to respond to the crises of their own moment--massive European migration and ensuing social tensions; the closing of the "frontier," urban crowding, and dislocation from traditional ways of life; industrialization and tense labor relations often exploding into violence; piecing together a democracy amid the wreckage of a civil war; struggling for a collaborative international order in the face of the industrialized mass death proffered by two World Wars. This very serious business notwithstanding, these figures tried to alert us to the vitality of play for all kinds of inquiries. But have we listened?
What can we learn about our own time through what the likes of Addams, Dewey, James, and Peirce had to say about play?
And, a playful suggestion: What about the other pragmatisms -- feminist pragmatism, critical pragmatism, Black pragmatism, pragmatist thinking more rooted outside of the United States -- that our field has largely neglected? What happens when they put their spin on the ball?
Please examine our call and consider joining us for energizing conversation, comradery, and I'm sure an abundance of wordplay about play.
EGOS - CALL for Short Papers - European Group for Organizational Studiesegos.org