Rationale

This course engages with a particular body of socio-political theory which has been rather underexposed in organisation and management studies; that of the Argentinean political theorist, Ernesto Laclau. Laclau is most famous for his book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (co-authored with Chantal Mouffe), which could be regarded as one of the most important post-Marxist texts written in the past twenty years. This course will closely read this book and the subsequent work of Laclau within the wider tradition of progressive socio-political theory while focussing on its implications for the discourse of organisation and management studies (OMS). ‘Reading’ here means that we will not simply incorporate Laclau into OMS; on the contrary, we will read Laclau against the contemporary hegemonic discourse of OMS and vice versa. Reading is a praxis of translation as well as one of critique, and in this way this course aims to contribute to a project of re-reading organisation and management studies through the lens of Laclau’s project.

The wider significance of this project of reading Laclau is two-fold: On one hand, it is a theoretical intervention in a field (OMS), which, at times, seems to be characterised by a certain atheoretical mood that privileges managerial practices and ‘quick fixes’. On the other hand, the reading of Laclau also aims to be a critical praxis that evaluates the discourse of OMS politically. That is, the event of reading Laclau should be seen as part of a wider project of evaluating the political positioning of the OMS discourse and exploring the im-possibilities for its repositioning. This project of re-positioning – and re-locating if you like – should not be simply seen as a philosophical concept (although that too!). What is implied here is to take the spatial significance of re-positioning quite literally, which is to say that one should not underestimate the importance of the location of this course in the ‘Global South’ and specifically in Porto Alegre, the city of the World Social Forum.

 

Teaching Method

This course will consist of a series of fifteen two-hour sessions to take place in July and August 2006. The main methodological approach to these teaching sessions is that of dialogue in the way it was developed by Paulo Freire. Rather than predefining the exact coordinates of this dialogical form of teaching and engagement, the responsibility for establishing and practicing this dialogue lies with the group of students and teachers involved in this course. Clearly, dialogue is not something that simply happens; an active engagement will be required to explore the radical possibilities of a praxis of dialogue. Students and teachers alike are therefore called upon to not just prepare rigorously for each session, but also to actively participate, question and critique.

To aid the establishment of dialogue, the following methods of engagement are proposed: (1) Everybody is required to read as many of the below suggested references as possible before each session; (2) Students and teachers are able to suggest additional readings for any session; particularly students are encouraged to suggest readings that connect to the specificity of their cultural and social situations in Brazil and South America; (3) Teachers and students will engage in an act of co-presenting, which implies that the voice of the presenter will not only be that of the teacher; it is proposed that about half of each session will be led by the teacher, while the other half will be led by students; (4) It is proposed that for the student-led part of each session, students prepare a series of individual and/or group presentations that engage with aspects of their research projects and/or aspects of the themes explored in this course; (5) It is proposed that large parts of each session will consist of group discussions, which implies certain requirements in terms of spatial layout (round table discussions); (6) This course should not be seen as a pre-defined and given event; instead it is a dialogical process that requires the active and continuous engagement of all participants; success and failure will be the responsibility of all participants of this course.

 

Course Outline

The course will consist of six main sections. Below each section is briefly introduced, and then the readings for each of the fifteen sessions (which are continuously numbered) will be outlined. Each reference given does not imply that the whole text needs to be read for the session. At the end of each reference particular chapters or page numbers are given, which highlight the suggested passages that are of importance for the session. All participants are urged to read as much of the suggested readings as possible before each session.

 

I  INTRODUCTION

In this session we will get to know each other; each participant will introduce themselves and their research interests. The themes of the course will be introduced, and particular emphasis will be put on the discussion of the teaching methods used, which implies that ‘teaching organisation and management’ itself will be put into context and under scrutiny. Dialogue as the main methodological approach will be problematised and the participants agree on the dialogical methods of engagement during this course. Last but not least, Laclau and his approach to discourse theory will be introduced.

 

1. Teaching Management and Organisation: Discourse, Politics and Dialogue

Böhm, Steffen (2006) ‘Good Bye Lenin! Of Dreamworlds, Catastrophes and Empires, Now and Then’, Working paper, University of Essex. (download)

Freire, Paulo (1996) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. London: Penguin; Chapter 4. (copy)

Harvie, David (2006) ‘Value-production and struggle in the classroom’, Capital and Class, 88 (Spring): 1-32; http://www.le.ac.uk/ulmc/doc/dharvie_classroom.pdf

Howarth, David (2000) Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press; Introduction. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe (1987) ‘Post-marxism without apologies’, New Left Review, 166: 79-106. (download)

Parker, Martin (2002a) Against Management: Organization in the Age of Managerialism. Cambridge: Polity; Introduction. (copy)

 

II  STRUCTURALIST THEORIES OF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION

This section discusses so-called structuralist philosophies and their relevance for organisation and management studies. Two main sets of structuralist philosophies will be put under scrutiny: Marxist and linguistic. Both have had a big influence on the development of Laclau’s work over the past thirty years, and it is therefore important for us to understand these starting points for his critical engagement with philosophy and socio-political theory.

 

2. Marxist Structuralism: Marx, Gramsci, Althusser and Labour Process Theory

Böhm, Steffen (2006) Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies. Basingstoke: Palgrave; 139-144. (download)

Althusser, Louis (2005) For Marx. London: Verso; see notes for an Investigation, part III of ‘For Marx’ available here http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/works/formarx/althuss1.htm

Braverman, Harry (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. London: Monthly Review Press, Introduction, particularly 24-30, and Chapter 1. (copy)

Brewer, Anthony (1980) Marxist theories of imperialism: A critical survey. London: Routledge & Kegal Paul; 51-60. (copy)

Eagleton, Terry (1991) Ideology. London: Verso, 112-123 on Gramsci; and 146-153 on Althusser. (copy)

Gramsci, Antonio (1971) Selection from Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence & Wishart; http://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/editions/spn/contents.htm; particularly sections on ‘The Intellectuals’ and ‘On Education’. Also, sections on ‘Hegemony’ and the concept of the ‘historical bloc’, http://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/editions/reader/q10ii-41.htm; also useful is the section on ‘Americanism and Fordism’

Marx, Karl (1976) Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1, trans. Ben Fowkes. London: Penguin; Chapter 1 on Commodities; http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch01.htm

Thompson, Paul and Chris Smith (2001) ‘Follow the Redbrick Road: Reflections on Pathways in and out of the Labor Process Debate,’ International Studies on Management and Organization, 30(4): 40-67. (download)

Web-resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx

http://www.marxists.org/

http://www.marxists.org/archive/gramsci/

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/index.htm

http://www.italnet.nd.edu/gramsci/

http://www.acessa.com/gramsci/

http://www.generation-online.org/p/palthusser.htm

3. Linguistic Structuralism: Saussaure and Barthes

Barthes, Roland (1964/1968) Elements of Semiology. Hill and Wang; http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/barthes.htm

Barthes, Roland (1972) Mythologies. London: Paladin; 40-42 on ‘Soap Powders and Detergents’ and ‘Myth Today’, particularly 117-138. (copy)

Howarth, David (2000) Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press; Chapter 1. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (2005) On Populist Reason. London: Verso; Chapter 2 on Le Bon. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe (1987) ‘Post-marxism without apologies’, New Left Review, 166: 82-84; section on ‘Discourse’. (download)

Saussure, Ferdinand de (1910/1993) Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics. London: Pergamon Press; http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/saussure.htm

Web-resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_de_Saussure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes

  

III  POST-STRUCTURALIST THEORIES OF MANAGEMENT AND ORGANISATION

Post-structural philosophies have arguably had a defining influence on organisation and management studies (OMS) in the past twenty years. Particularly the work of Foucault has influenced many writers to such an extend that one can even speak of a Foucauldian field in OMS. However, recently some writers have expressed concerns over the way Foucault has been read in OMS; and their point is that this reading is an articulation of some of the theoretical and political insufficiencies of the OMS field. The work of Derrida has also had considerable exposure in OMS, while, again, deconstruction seems to be often read through a particular, that is, limited, methodological lens. However, other important post-structural writers have generally been underexposed in OMS; for example, the works of Laclau and Mouffe, Žižek and Lacan, as well as Hardt and Negri seem to only now come to the fore. In this section of the course we will introduce the works of these writers and evaluate the way they have been read in OMS. It is clear that we will not be able to go into all details of these writers’ works. The reason they are introduced here is that their works are important in terms of the specific positioning of Laclau’s thought, which is the main object of this course.

 

4. Foucault and consequences

Böhm, Steffen (2006) Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies. Basingstoke: Palgrave; 129-134; 139-144. (download)

Dreyfus, Hubert and Paul Rabinow (1982) Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics. Brighton: Harvester; Chapter 3 and ‘Afterword’ by Foucault. (copy)

Foucault, Michel (1972) The archaeology of knowledge. London: Tavistock; Chapters 1-2; http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/foucault.htm

Jones, Campbell (2003b) ‘Foucault’s Inheritance/Inheriting Foucault,’ Culture and Organization, 8(3): 225-38; http://www.le.ac.uk/ulmc/doc/cjones_foucaults_inheritance.pdf

Knights, David (2003) ‘Writing Organizational Analysis into Foucault’, Organization, 9(4): 575–593. (download)

Sewell, Graham (2005) ‘Nice Work? Rethinking Managerial Control in an Era of Knowledge Work’, Organization, 12: 685-704. (download)

Thompson, Paul and Stephen Ackroyd (2005) ‘Discussion of Sewell: A Little Knowledge is Still a Dangerous Thing: Some Comments on the Indeterminacy of Graham Sewell’, Organization, 12: 705-710. (download)

Townley, Barbara. (1993) ‘Foucault, power/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management’, The Academy of Management Review, 18(3): 518-546. (download)

Web-resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault

http://foucault.info/documents/

5. Derrida and consequences

Böhm, Steffen (2006) Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies. Basingstoke: Palgrave; 53-57; 105-113; 134-137. (download)

Cooper, Robert (1989) ‘Modernism, postmodernism and organizational analysis 3: the contribution of Jacques Derrida’, Organization Studies, 10(4): 479-502. (download)

Derrida, Jacques (1978) ‘Structure, sign and play in the human sciences’, trans. A. Bass, in Jacques Derrida (ed.) Writing and difference. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; http://www.hydra.umn.edu/derrida/sign-play.html

Derrida, Jacques (1988) ‘Signature event context’, in Jacques Derrida (ed.) Limited Inc. Evanston, Ill: Northwestern University Press. http://www.hydra.umn.edu/derrida/sec.html

Derrida, Jacques (1991) ‘Letter to a Japanese friend’, in P. Kamuf (ed.) The Derrida Reader, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf; http://www.hydra.umn.edu/derrida/letter.html

Jones, Campbell (2003) ‘Jacques Derrida’, in Stephen Linstead (ed.) Organization Theory and Postmodern Thought. London: Sage; http://www.le.ac.uk/ulmc/doc/cjones_derrida.pdf

Kilduff, Martin (1993) ‘Deconstructing Organizations’, The Academy of Management Review, 18(1): 13-34. (download)

Web-resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida

http://www.hydra.umn.edu/derrida/jdind.html

 

6. Psychoanalysis and Lacan

Böhm, Steffen (2005) ‘Fetish Failures: Interrupting the Subject and the Other’, in Pullen, A. and Linstead, S. (eds.) Organization and Identity. London: Routledge, 127-161. (download)

Böhm, Steffen (2006) Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies. Basingstoke: Palgrave; 59-61. (download)

Carr, Adrian (2000) ‘Critical theory and the psychodynamics of change: A note about organizations’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 13(3): 289-299. (download)

Roberts, John (2005) ‘The Power of the ‘Imaginary’ in Disciplinary Processes’, Organization, 12: 619-642. (download)

Townley, Barbara (2005) ‘Discussion of Roberts: Controlling Foucault, Organization, 12: 643-648. (download)

Žižek, Slavoj (2006) ‘Jacques Lacan’s Four Discourses’, http://www.lacan.com/zizfour.htm

Žižek, Slavoj (2006) ‘The Iraq War: Where Is The True Danger?’; http://www.lacan.com/iraq.htm

Žižek, Slavoj (2006) ‘The Parallax View, Part II: The Birth of (the Hegelian) Concrete Universality Out of the Spirit of (Kantian) Antinomies’, http://www.lacan.com/zizparallax2.htm - only the section ‘The Master-Signifier and its Vicissitudes’

Web-resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan

http://www.lacan.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

 

7. Post-Marxism: Laclau, Mouffe, Žižek, Hardt, Negri

Böhm, Steffen and Christian De Cock (2005) ‘Everything you wanted to know about organization theory . . . but were afraid to ask Slavoj Žižek’, The Sociological Review, 53(s1): 279-291. (download)

Contu, Alessia (2002) ‘A Political Answer to Questions of Struggle,’ ephemera: critical dialogues on organization, 2(2): 160-74; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/2-2/2-2contu.pdf

De Cock, Christian and Steffen Böhm (forthcoming) ‘Liberalist Fantasies: Žižek and the Impossibility of the Open Society’, Organization. (download)

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri (2000) Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Sections 2.3 and 3.4; http://www.infoshop.org/texts/empire.pdf

Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso, chapters 1-2. (copy)

Lazzarato, Maurizio (2004) ‘From Capital-Labour to Capital-Life’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 4(3): 187-208; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/4-3/4-3lazzarato.pdf

Thompson, Paul (2005) ‘Foundation and Empire: A critique of Hardt and Negri’, Capital & Class, 86: 73-100. (download)

Web-resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantal_Mouffe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Laclau
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zizek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Negri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hardt
http://www.lacan.com/bibliographyzi.htm

  

IV  LACLAU’S POST-MARXISM AND THE HEGEMONY OF MANAGEMENT

Having introduced and discussed the writers that make up the backbone of Laclau’s theoretical apparatus, we will now move into the midst of the Laclauian concepts. Once we have discussed Laclau’s conceptual apparatus, we’ll look at the reception of Laclau’s work in organisation and management studies as well as the wider spheres of socio-political theory. We will also engage with some of the critiques that have been put forward against Laclau and other neo-Gramscian approaches to politics.

 

8. Hegemony, Antagonism and the Politics of Empty Signifiers

Laclau, Ernesto (1977) Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. London: Verso; Chapter 1 ‘Feudalism and Capitalism in Latin America’. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (1994) ‘Introduction,’ in Ernesto Laclau (ed.) The Making of Political Identities. London: Verso, 1-10. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (1995) ‘The Time is Out of Joint,’ Diacritics, 25(2): 86-96. (download)

Laclau, Ernesto (1996) ‘Deconstruction, Pragmatism, Hegemony,’ in Simon Critchley et al. Deconstruction and Pragmatism, ed. Chantal Mouffe. London: Routledge. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (1996) Emancipation(s). London: Verso; Chapter 3. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso, chapters 3-4. (copy)

9. Universality, Contingency and Populism

Butler, Judith; Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Žižek (2000) Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Contemporary Dialogues on the Left. London: Verso; Essays by Laclau. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (1977) Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. London: Verso; Chapter 4 ‘Towards a Theory of Populism’. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (1990) ‘Totalitarianism and Moral Indignation’, Diacritics, 20(3): 8-95. (download)

Laclau, Ernesto (1996) Emancipation(s). London: Verso; Chapter 2. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (1997) ‘The death and resurrection of the theory of ideology’, MLN, 112(3): 297-321. (download)

Laclau, Ernesto (2005) On Populist Reason. London: Verso; Part II. (copy)

Laclau, Ernesto (2005) ‘On “Real” and “Absolute” Enemies’, New Centennial Review, 5(1): 1-12. (download)

Laclau, Ernesto (2006) ‘Ideology and post-Marxism’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 11(2): 103-114. (download)

 

New outline:

Changes to the course were decided upon collaboratively on 14 August. Each session will be about a concrete organisational practice as well as a specific set of Laclauian concepts.

(E) refers to essential readings; the rest of the readings are optional.

 

V  PRACTICES OF HEGEMONY AND COUNTER-HEGEMONY 

Having discussed Laclau’s theories in significant detail, we will now move towards their applications in the concrete organisational realities of societies and resistance movements in Latin American and beyond. While the course so far is by no means thought to be simply ‘theoretical’ (as the way we discussed theory was hoping to be highly practical and relevant), it is hoped that the remainder of this course will closely engage with some concrete questions of how resistance against the hegemony of management is organised. That is, we now need to move beyond the mere conceptualisation of hegemony and work towards an analysis of the (im)possibilities of counter-hegemonic movements of resistance and an exploration of alternative organisational futures.

 

10. Neo-liberalism and Democracy in Latin America – Hegemony and Populism (21 Aug)

This session attempts to discuss the history of neo-liberalism and democracy in Latin America, which of course is connected to a long history of colonialism in this region. We will try to make sense of this through Laclau’s conceptions of populism and hegemony, while assessing the limitations of Laclau in the Latin American context.

(E) Boron, Atilio A. (n.d.) ‘After the Sacking: Latin American Capitalism at the Beginning of the XXI Century’ (download)

(E) Boron, Atilio A. (2006) ‘The Truth about Capitalist Democracy’, Socialist Register; http://socialistregister.com/sample/2

(E) Laclau, Ernesto (1977) Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. London: Verso; section III of Chapter 4 ‘Towards a theory of populism’, i.e. pp. 176-194. (copy already available)

(E) Laclau, Ernesto (2005) On Populist Reason. London: Verso; section ‘Heterogeneity enters the scene’ in Chapter 5; i.e. pp. 139-156 (copy already available)

Escobar, Arturo (2004) ‘Beyond the Third World: imperial globality, global coloniality and anti-globalisation social movements’, Third World Quarterly, 25(1); only pages 207-220; http://www.soc.uoc.gr/socmedia/socmedia/chrkonstantinidou/soc_mov/soc_mov_glob.pdf

Katz, Claudio (2005) ‘Latin America’s new left governments’, International Socialism, 107; http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=124

Maldonado-Torres, Nelson (n.d.) ‘The Topology of Being and the Geopolitics of Knowledge: Modernity, Empire, Coloniality’, Working Paper; http://www.afyl.org/nelson.pdf

Mignolo, Walter D. (2002) ‘The Geopolitics of Knowledge and the Colonial Difference’, The South Atlantic Quarterly, 101(1): 57-96; www.duke.edu/~wmignolo/InteractiveCV/Publications/Geopolitics.pdf

Ali, Tariq (2004) ‘Venezuela: Changing the World by Taking Power’; http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1223

 

11. Participation – Empty and Floating Signifiers (23 Aug)

Following on from the previous session on the history of democracy and capitalism in Latin America, we will engage with the discourse of participation, which has become part of the ‘normal’ discourse of the state (e.g. local, community self-organisation) as well as companies (e.g. empowerment of employees and group self-organisation). Rodrigo’s and Bruno’s projects, for example, are inherently related to this discourse of participation, which the ‘democratic’ state has been using to take on concerns that have been expressed in civil society (e.g. black civil rights movements fighting for participation/representation in the democratic process). The question is what does participation mean and how is it practiced in the different spheres of the economy (companies), state and civil society. We’ll explore this question through Laclau’s concepts of empty and floating signifier. It would be useful if Bruno and Rodrigo could prepare a short introduction of their research projects to the group, so that a lively discussion can emerge.

(E) Baiocchi, Gianpaolo (2003) Radicals in Power: The Workers' Party and Experiments in Urban Democracy in Brazil. London: Zed Books; Rodrigo and Bruno to select one relevant chapter and make available to the group please.

(E) Laclau, Ernesto (1996) Emancipation(s). London: Verso; Chapter 3 ‘Why do empty signifiers matter to politics’. (copy already distributed)

(E) Laclau, Ernesto (2005) On Populist Reason. London: Verso; section ‘Floating: nemesis or destiny of the signifier’ in Chapter 5; i.e. pp. 129-138 (copy already available)

Albert, Michael (2003) ‘Participatory Economics’, http://www.republicart.net/disc/aeas/albert01_en.pdf

Albert, Michael (2004) Parecon: Life After Capitalism. London: Verso (copy) and see  http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm

More optional readings to be provided by Rodrigo and Bruno

 

12. Social Forums – Equivalence/Difference (28 Aug)

Porto Alegre is the city of the World Social Forum. So, it makes sense for us to connect to the organisational and political practices of social forums, which have become an important cornerstone of today’s progressive, emancipatory politics around the world. Social forums attempt to bring a diverse set of political actors (difference) together in a common space (equivalence). It therefore makes sense for us to connect the social forum phenomenon to these two of Laclau’s most important concepts. The question we should try to discuss is: Are social forums currently able to articulate the differences of demands present at social forum events in an equivalential way?

(E) Böhm, Steffen (2005) ‘Ground Zero of the Forum: Notes on a Personal Journey’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization’, 5(2): 134-145; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2bohm.pdf

(E) Böhm, Steffen (2006) Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies. Basingstoke: Palgrave; last two sections of Chapter 7, i.e. pp. 162-176 (download)

(E) Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso, section ‘Equivalence and Difference’ in Chapter 3, i.e. pp. 127-134 (copy already available)

The journal ephemera: theory & politics has published a special issue on the organisation and politics of social forums (http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2index.htm); there are many useful papers in this issue. More references on social forums are available at this comprehensive bibliography: http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2biblio.htm.

Web-resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Social_Forum

http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/

 

13. Alternative Media Networks – Articulation and/or Autonomous Self-Organisation (30 Aug)

Anti-capitalist movements make use of a range of alternative media networks, such as www.indymedia.org to articulate their resistance against hegemonic discourses of democracy, economy and media. But are they really able to ‘articulate’ this resistance in the Laclauian sense? We will try to explore this question in this session, which aims to contrast Laclau’s theoretical universe with some contemporary anarchist discourses of autonomous self-organisation. This discourse of self-organisation emphasises difference, autonomy and does not seem to attempt to take over (state) power (a la Holloway and Hardt/Negri). We will aim to assess this discourse of autonomous self-organisation and critique it through the Laclauian concept of articulation.

(E) Hyde, Gene (2002) ‘Independent Media Centers: Cyber-Subversion and the Alternative Press’, First Monday, 7(4), http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_4/hyde/index.html

(E) Day, Richard J.F. (2005) Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist currents in the newest social movements. London: Pluto Press; Introduction and Conclusions (copy has been made available)

(E) Laclau, Ernesto (2004) ‘Can Immanence Explain Social Struggles?,’ Diacritics, 31(4): 3-10. (download)

(E) Alt.Media.Res Collective (2006, forthcoming) 'Indymedia', in: Gary Anderson and Kathryn Herr (eds). Encyclopaedia of Activism and Social Justice. London: Sage. (download)

Holloway, John (2005) Change the World without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today. London: Pluto Press; a brief overview of Holloway’s argument and his critics can be found in ‘Can we change the world without taking power? A debate between John Holloway and Alex Callinicos’, World Social Forum, 27 January 2005, International Socialist Journal, 106; http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=98&issue=106

Arnison, Matthew (2001) ‘Open publishing is the same as free software’; http://www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html

Beckerman, Gal (2003) ‘Edging away from anarchy’, Columbia Journalism Review, 42(3): 27-30. (download)

Dery, Mark (1993), ‘Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs’, Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, http://www.levity.com/markdery/culturjam.html

Gott, Richard (2006) ‘Venezuela’s Murdoch’, New Left Review, 39: 149-158; http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=06/04/22/035228&mode=thread&tid=12

Rossiter, Ned (2006) ‘Organised Networks: Transdisciplinarity and New Institutional Forms’, http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=06/04/22/035228&mode=thread&tid=12

Whitney, Jennifer (2006) ‘What’s the Matter with Indymedia?’; http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/08/01/2351244&mode=nested&tid=15

Zehle, S. (2005) ‘FLOSS Redux: Notes on African Software Politics’, Mute, 2(1); http://www.metamute.org/en/Underneath-the-Knowledge-Commons

Web-resources:

http://www.indymedia.org

http://www.ifiwatchnet.org

http://www.hackthissite.org/zine/index2.php

http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve_latest_index.htm

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_publishing

 

14. Water, Cellulose and Development – The Relevance of Laclau (4 Sept)

Having worked through some concrete practices of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic organising in Latin America and beyond, we will conclude this course by engaging with the struggles against water privatisation and the cellulose struggles that will concern (some of) us during our course trip to Uruguay and Argentina (6-17 Sept). We will try to evaluate the contribution of Laclau’s concepts and theoretical framework for understanding the struggles against hegemonic development discourses in Latin America.

(E) Otto, Birke and Steffen Böhm (2006, forthcoming) ‘“The people” and resistance against international business: The case of the Bolivian “water war”, Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2(4). (download)

(E) Levy, David L. and Daniel Egan (2003) ‘A Neo-Gramscian Approach to Corporate Political Strategy: Conflict and Accommodation in the Climate Change Negotiations,’ Journal of Management Studies, 40(4): 803-30. (download)

(E) Kebede, AlemSeghed (2005) ‘Grassroots Environmental Organizations in the United States: A Gramscian Analysis’, Sociological Inquiry, 75(1): 81-108. (download)

Levy, David L. and Peter Newell (2005) ‘A Neo-Gramscian approach to business in international environmental politics: An interdisciplinary, multilevel framework,’ in David L. Levy and Peter Newell (eds.) The Business of Global Environmental Governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 47-69. (copy)

Bachram, Heidi (2004) ‘Climate Fraud and Carbon Colonialism: The New Trade in Greenhouse Gases’, Capitalism Nature Socialism, 15(4): 1-16. (download)

Petermann, Anne & Orin Langelle (2006) ‘Plantations, Indigenous Rights, & GE Trees Confronting corporate strategies to expand plantations’, Z Magazine, 19(3); http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Mar2006/langelle0306.html

Oliver-Smith, Anthony (2001) ‘Displacement, resistance and the critique of development: From the grass roots to the global’, Report, University of Oxford (download).

May, Peter; Emily Boyd; Manyu Chang; and Fernando C. Veiga Neto (2005) ‘Incorporating sustainable development into carbon forest projects in Brazil and Bolivia’, Estud.soc.agric., 1: 1-23 (download).

 

Old outline

before changes were decided on 14 August

 

10. Readings of Hegemony in Organisation and Management Studies

Contu, Alessia and Hugh Willmott (2003) ‘Re-embedding situatedness: The importance of power relations in learning theory,’ Organization Science, 14(3): 283-96. (download)

Elliott, Carole (2003) ‘Representations of the Intellectual: Insights from Gramsci on Management Education,’ Management Learning, 34(4): 411-27. (download)

Jones, Campbell and André Spicer (2005) ‘The Sublime Object of Entrepreneurship,’ Organization, 12(2): 223-46. (download)

Levy, David L. and Daniel Egan (2003) ‘A Neo-Gramscian Approach to Corporate Political Strategy: Conflict and Accommodation in the Climate Change Negotiations,’ Journal of Management Studies, 40(4): 803-30. (download)

Levy, David L. and Peter Newell (2002) ‘Business Strategy and International Environmental Governance: Toward a Neo-Gramscian Synthesis,’ Global Environmental Politics, 2(4): 84-101. (download)

Mumby, Dennis K. (1997) ‘The problem of hegemony: Rereading Gramsci for organizational communication’, Western Journal of Communication; 61(4): 343-375. (download)

Ogbor, John O (2001) ‘Critical theory and the hegemony of corporate culture,’ Journal of Organizational Change Management, 14(6): 590-608. (download)

Otto, Birke and Steffen Böhm (2006, forthcoming) '"The people" and resistance against international business: The case of the Bolivian "water war", Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2(4). (download)

Spicer, Andre and Steffen Böhm (under review) ‘Moving Management: Theorizing Struggles against the Hegemony of Management’, Organization Studies. (download)

Spicer, Andre, Steffen Böhm, S. and Peter Fleming (under review) ‘Infra-Political Dimensions of Resistance to International Business: A Neo-Gramscian Approach’, Journal of Management Studies. (download)

Willmott, Hugh (2005) ‘Theorizing Contemporary Control: Some Post-structural Responses to some Critical Realist Questions’, Organization, 12(5): 747-780. (download)

11. Critiques of Laclau

Brockelman, Thomas (2003) ‘The failure of the radical democratic imaginary: Žižek versus Laclau and Mouffe on vestigial utopia’, Philosophy & Social Criticism, 29(2): 183-208. (download)

Critchley, Simon (2004) ‘Is there a normative deficit in the theory of hegemony?’ in Simon Critchley and Oliver Marchart (eds.) Laclau: A critical reader. London: Routledge. (download)

Day, Richard J.F. (2005) Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist currents in the newest social movements. London: Pluto Press; 70-75. (copy)

Glynos, Jason (2001) ‘The grip of ideology: a Lacanian approach to the theory of ideology’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 6(2): 191-214. (download)

Holloway, John (2005) Change the World without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today. London: Pluto Press; also see ‘Can we change the world without taking power? A debate between John Holloway and Alex Callinicos’, World Social Forum, 27 January 2005, International Socialist Journal, 106; http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=98&issue=106

Laclau, Ernesto (2004) ‘Can Immanence Explain Social Struggles?,’ Diacritics, 31(4): 3-10. (download)

Laclau, Ernesto (forthcoming) ‘Why constructing a “people” is the main task of radical politics’, Critical Inquiry. (download)

Norval, Aletta J. (2004) ‘Hegemony after deconstruction: the consequences of undecidability’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 9(2): 139-157. (download)

Thomassen, Lasse (2005) Antagonism, hegemony and ideology after heterogeneity, Journal of Political Ideologies, 10(3): 289-309. (download)

Žižek, Slavoj (2006) ‘Against the Populist Temptation’, Critical Inquiry, 32: 551-574. (download)

 

V  CASES OF RESISTANCE AND THE ORGANISATION OF A GRASSROOTS COUNTER-HEGEMONY

Having discussed Laclau’s theories in significant detail, we will now move towards their applications in the concrete organisational realities of societies and resistance movements in Latin American and beyond. While the course so far is by no means thought to be simply ‘theoretical’ (as the way we discussed theory was hoping to be highly practical and relevant), it is hoped that the remainder of this course will closely engage with some concrete questions of how resistance against the hegemony of management is organised. That is, we now need to move beyond the mere conceptualisation of hegemony and work towards an analysis of the (im)possibilities of counter-hegemonic movements of resistance and an exploration of alternative organisational futures.

 

12. The Anti-Capitalist and Social Forum Movements in Latin America and beyond

Ali, Tariq: "Venezuela: Changing the World by Taking Power" (an interview, July 22, 2004), on-line at http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1223

Böhm, Steffen (2005) ‘Ground Zero of the Forum: Notes on a Personal Journey’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization’, 5(2): 134-145; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2bohm.pdf

Böhm, Steffen (2006) Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies. Basingstoke: Palgrave; Chapter 7. (download)

Boron, Atilio A.  (n.d.) ‘After the Sacking: Latin American Capitalism at the Beginning of the XXI Century’ (download)

Colectivo Situaciones (2005) ‘Something More on Research Militancy: Footnotes on Procedures and (In)Decisions’, trans. Sebastian Touza and Nate Holdren, ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 5(4): 602-614; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-4/5-4colectivo.pdf

Holdren, Nate and Sebastian Touza (2005) ‘Introduction to Colectivo Situaciones’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 5(4): 595-601; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-4/5-4holdren-touza.pdf

Katz, Claudio (2005) ‘Latin America’s new left governments’, International Socialism, 107; http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=124

Petras, James (2002) ‘The Unemployed Workers Movement in Argentina’, Monthly Review, 53(8); http://www.monthlyreview.org/0102petras.htm

Petras, James and Veltmeyer, Henry (2005) Social Movements and State Power: Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador. London: Pluto Press; Chapter 6. (copy)

Routledge, Paul (2005) ‘Grassrooting the Imaginary: Acting within the Convergence’, ephemera: theory & politics in organization, 5(4): 615-628; http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-4/5-4routledge.pdf

Seoane, José; Emilio Taddei and Clara Algranati (n.d.) ‘The New Configurations of Popular Movements in Latin America’ (download)

Web-resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Social_Forum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Anti-globalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-capitalism

http://www.iol.ie/%7Emazzoldi/toolsforchange/afpp/afpp4.html

http://www.iol.ie/~mazzoldi/toolsforchange/papers.html

http://www.ephemeraweb.org/journal/5-2/5-2biblio.htm

 

13. Organised Networks of Alternative Media

Arnison, Matthew (2001) ‘Open publishing is the same as free software’; http://www.cat.org.au/maffew/cat/openpub.html

Beckerman, Gal (2003) ‘Edging away from anarchy’, Columbia Journalism Review, 42(3): 27-30. (download -big file)

Dery, Mark (1993), ‘Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs’, Open Magazine Pamphlet Series, http://www.levity.com/markdery/culturjam.html

Gott, Richard (2006) ‘Venezuela’s Murdoch’, New Left Review, 39: 149-158 (download)

Hyde, Gene (2002) ‘Independent Media Centers: Cyber-Subversion and the Alternative Press’, First Monday, 7(4), http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_4/hyde/index.html

Rossiter, Ned (2006) ‘Organised Networks: Transdisciplinarity and New Institutional Forms’, http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=06/04/22/035228&mode=thread&tid=12

Whitney, Jennifer (2006) ‘What’s the Matter with Indymedia?’; http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/08/01/2351244&mode=nested&tid=15

Zehle, S. (2005) ‘FLOSS Redux: Notes on African Software Politics’, Mute, 2(1); http://www.metamute.org/en/Underneath-the-Knowledge-Commons

Web-resources:
http://alt-media-res.clearerchannel.org/public/

http://alt-media-res.clearerchannel.org/public/index.php?title=Alt.media.biblio

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/ImcEssayCollection

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_publishing

http://www.indymedia.org

http://www.ifiwatchnet.org

http://www.ephemeraweb.org

http://www.mayflybooks.org

http://www.clearerchannel.org

http://www.hackthissite.org/zine/index2.php

http://www.catalystmedia.org.uk/issues/nerve_latest_index.htm

 

14. Alternative Economies and Cooperative Productions

Dangl, Benjamin (2005) ‘Occupy, Resist, Produce: Worker Cooperatives in Buenos Aires’, Znet, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=7353

Kebede, AlemSeghed (2005) ‘Grassroots Environmental Organizations in the United States: A Gramscian Analysis’, Sociological Inquiry, 75(1): 81-108. (download)

Lunn, Renate (2005) ‘Rosario, Argentina: An Economy Based on Solidarity’, http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/23/32/

The Commoner (2003) ‘What alternatives? Commons and Communities, Dignity and Freedom!’, 6, http://www.commoner.org.uk/previous_issues.htm#n6 (read a few papers in this issue)

The Take (2004) by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein; http://www.thetake.org (we will watch this movie)

Žižek, Slavoj (2006) ‘The Parallax View, Part III: The Parallax of the Critique of Political Economy’, http://www.lacan.com/zizparallax3.htm

Web-resources:
http://www.estebanmagnani.com.ar

http://www.metamute.org/?q=en/Underneath-the-Knowledge-Commons

http://www.commoner.org.uk

 

VI  CONCLUSIONS

Having worked through some concrete and empirical examples of grassroots, counter-hegemonic organising in Latin America and beyond, we will conclude this course by engaging with some utopian, imaginary futures. Specifically, we will discuss the concept of self-organisation and its vicissitudes. Having gone through Laclauian theories of socio-political analysis in quite some detail, we will attempt to answer the question of whether ‘self-organisation’ is the Laclauian imaginary of a future hegemony of egalitarian, grassroots social organisation or, in fact, its counter-image.

 

15. Towards an Hegemony of Grassroots Self-Organisation

Albert, Michael (2003) ‘Participatory Economics’, http://www.republicart.net/disc/aeas/albert01_en.pdf

Albert, Michael (2004) Parecon: Life After Capitalism. London: Verso (copy) and see  http://www.zmag.org/parecon/indexnew.htm

Day, Richard J.F. (2005) Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist currents in the newest social movements. London: Pluto Press. (copy)

Brecher, Jeremy; Tim Costello and Brendan Smith (2002) Globalization From Below: The Power Of Solidarity. South End Press. http://www.zmag.org/content/GlobalEconomics/brecher-costello_may10.cfm

Web-resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-organization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots