Work and Organization: the Aesthetic Dimension

Brief Description: Chapters based on a conference held at the University of Manchester, July 2001: "The Second International Critical Management Studies Conference." Themes can be broadly described as: Art and aesthetics as a way of knowing organization; the organization of work itself is an aesthetically ordered activity; and, critical engagements with aesthetics at work. Marc Notes: Chapters based on a conference held at the University of Manchester, July 2001: The Second International Critical Management Studies Conference. Themes can be broadly described as: Art and aesthetics as a way of knowing organization; the organization of work itself is an aesthetically ordered activity; and, critical engagements with aesthetics at work.; Includes bibliographical references.; Includes bibliographical references. Publisher Marketing: Over recent years the field of organization studies has exhibited an increasing interest in the aesthetic dimension of work and its organization. The chapters in this volume owe their origins to a conference held at the University of Manchester in July 2001. This conference, The Second International Critical Management Studies Conference, contained a stream on art and aesthetics which was convened by the editors of this volume. The chapters that constitute this volume should be understood as being inter-related, and are clearly focussed upon the topic of art and aesthetics. Notwithstanding, the chapters in this volume can be seen to speak to three major themes which could be broadly described as: Art and aesthetics as a way of knowing organization; the organization of work itself is an aesthetically ordered activity; and, critical engagements with aesthetics at work.

Contributor Bio:  Carr, Adrian Monica Whitty is Lecturer in Psychology at Queens University Belfast. Adrian Carr is Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow in the School of Applied Social & Human Sciences, at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Contributor Bio:  Hancock, Philip All the authors are members of the Caledonian University Body and Social Theory research group (CUBiST). Philip Hancock has taught the sociology of work and organizations at several UK universities. He has published in a number of edited collections, as well as journals such as Organization and The Journal of Management Studies. Bill Hughes is head of the Division of Sociology. His current research focuses on the application of contemporary sociological theory to impairment and disability. He has published in Body & Society and Disability and Society. Elizabeth Jagger is a lecturer in sociology and Chair of CUBiST. She has published on professional and governmental responses to 'glue-sniffing' in leading policy journals and work from her ongoing research into dating has appeared in Sociology. Kevin Paterson is a researcher interested in the development of a sociology of impairment and has had several articles published on this subject in both edited collections and the journal Disability and Society. Rachel Russell lectures in philosophy and the sociology of culture. Her research and publishing activities have recently focused on the interface between ethics and aesthetic experience, and its implication for social theory. Emmanuelle Tulle-Winton teaches in the field of old age and health, has published in a number of edited collections and journals on issues around the government of old age and old bodies as well as the organizational features of mental health services. Melissa Tyler lectures in sociology and has published work on gender, aesthetics, organization and the body in several edited collections as well as journals such as Sociology and Gender, Workand Organization.