Organizer: Eva Boxenbaum, Mines ParisTech
Organizer: Candace Jones, U. of Edinburgh
Organizer: Renate Elisabeth Meyer, WU Vienna U. of Economics and Business
Presenter: Markus A. Höllerer, WU Vienna U. of Economics and Business
Presenter: Gazi Islam, Grenoble Ecole de Management
Presenter: Paolo Quattrone, U. of Edinburgh
Presenter: Silviya Svejenova, Copenhagen Business School
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| Visual and material discourses such as images, logos, videos, building/product designs trigger a range of cognitive, emotional and other responses that transform audiences into active co-creators and communicators of symbolic meaning. Thus, contemporary organizations wield visual and material expressions to communicate their identity, organize their activities, and compete in the market. Yet, our organizational theories are ill equipped to capture the significance of the visual and material turn, and the ways in which organizations and other actors co-construct meaning. Part of the reason for this theoretical short-coming is that our methodological tool kit is inadquate for analyzing visual and material data. The aim of this PDW is to bring together scholars from different domains of management science who share an empirical engagement in the growing importance of visual and material discourses in constructing meaning within organization and management studies. The analysis of visual and material data has become a rapidly increasing concern in a broad array of research areas that address a plethora of organizational topics and all face practical issues concerning adequate research designs. The focus of the session is, therefore, the challenges of how to fruitfully engage with visual and material data, which we conceptualize as a springboard to theorize visual and material discourses and elaborate a potential future research agenda. A team of leading senior faculty with expertise on visual and material analyses will engage in dialogue with younger scholars and support the organizers in achieving a broad learning experience for all participants. The session will start with a set of panelists reporting on their experiences and discussing main challenges and opportunities from their point of view. After a brief open discussion with younger scholars, participants will group in round-tables and discuss identified issues in small groups. Senior faculty will act as round- table chairs and facilitators: Summarizing the roundtable discussions, each round- table chair will present the main discussion points and conclusions to the plenum. |