CALL FOR PAPERS

The Impact of Critical Management Studies on International Business

CMS6 Stream

The Sixth International Critical Management Conference

July 13-15, 2009

Warwick Business School,

The University of Warwick, UK

Stream Convenors

Joanne Roberts[1], George Cairns and David L. Levy

This stream provides a timely opportunity to reflect upon the impact of Critical Management Studies on the field of International Business.

Critical Management Studies (CMS) has successfully drawn together critical currents in the study of management that originated in the 1970s and 1980s. The term CMS was coined with the publication of Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott's edited collection Critical Management Studies in 1992, and in 1999 the first CMS conference gave further impetus to the movement and scope for the consolidation and development of critical management theory.

Yet CMS is not alone in its criticism of established social practices and institutional arrangements and challenges to the prevailing neo-liberal system. The 1990s saw the emergence of a ground swell of popular protest against international capital and its institutional sponsors. Demonstrations abounded against the activities of the multinational corporations, like Nike, McDonald’s and Shell, as well as challenges to international organisations like the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, with the Battle for Seattle in 1999 attracting world-wide media attention.

Despite popular discontent with international business practices and a growing awareness from academics, particularly those associated with CMS, academic journals in the field by and large failed to address issues of widespread interest to scholars questioning contemporary international business practices. It was against this background that Critical Perspectives on International Business (CPoIB) was founded in 2004.

In 2009 CPoIB will be into its fifth volume, an appropriate point at which to reflect upon the development of critical thinking within the field of International Business. Moreover, given that it will be over 10 years since the first CMS conference, an evaluation of the impact of CMS on International Business (IB) is timely.

The aim of this stream is to consider the impact of CMS on IB from a number of viewpoints, including but not limited to:

·  To what extent are critiques of IB evident in CMS?

·  How has research in IB been influenced by the CMS movement?

·  In what ways is a critical perspective influencing curriculum development and teaching methods in the field of IB?

·  How are scholarly critiques of IB influencing the everyday activities of international businesses and regulatory institutions?

·  Does a critical perspective limit research strategies in IB?

·  What opportunities exist for career development of critical scholars in IB?

·  What is the relationship between scholarly critique and popular protest movements?

·  What new or emerging trends are visible in the field of IB that can be attributed to a critical management perspective?

·  What future trends can be identified in the study of IB?

Key deadlines

Submission of abstracts (maximum 1000 words, A4 paper, single spaced, 12 point font) to Joanne Roberts () by - 1st November 2008.

Notification of paper acceptance - 31st December 2008.

Full papers to be submitted - 1st May 2009.

Convenors:

Dr Joanne Roberts (lead convenor) is a senior lecturer in management at Newcastle University, UK. Her research interests include knowledge intensive services, new information and communication technologies and knowledge transfer, communities of practice and the internationalisation of services. She is co-founder and co-editor of the international journal Critical Perspectives on International Business.

Address: Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, Armstrong Building, Newcastle upon Tyne. NE1 7RU. UK. Tel: +44 (0) 191 222 6232.

Email:

Professor George Cairns is Head of the School of Accounting, Finance and Management at the University of Essex. His research interests include alternative forms of organizational analysis, space and organization and representations of organization in literary fiction. He is co-editor and co-founder of Critical Perspectives on International Business. (From 1 July 2008, he takes up a post as Professor of Management at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia)

Address: School of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester. CO4 3SQ. UK. Email:

Professor David L. Levy is Chair of the Department of Management and Marketing at UMass-Boston. His research interests include the political economy of globalization and global production networks, particularly as they intersect with contentious social and political issues, such as the environment or outsourcing of services. David serves on the editorial boards of the journals Organization and Environment, Critical Perspectives on International Business, and the International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development. David is active within the Critical Management Studies interest group of the Academy of Management.

Address: Department of Management and Marketing, University of Massachusetts, Boston, 100 Morrissey Boulevard, Boston, MA 02125, USA.

E-mail:

1

[1] Lead convenor ().