Relevant dates:
Submissions due by March 15
Replies by April 15
The Workshop will be held on June 10, at Stockholm University’s Kista campus
Submission email
Please email submission to Emma Gritt e.l.j.dunkerley@leeds.ac.uk
Description of Workshop
The aim of this workshop is to bring together researchers with an interest in critical-theoretical perspectives (e.g. Marx; Habermas; Giddens) on social media in organisations, and explore how such lenses can further our understanding of the phenomena.
As researchers of information systems and related areas, it is our responsibility to engage in questions that examine what makes work, life and society better, (Adler, 2010), but likewise study what does not, and in doing so, reveal the harmful effects. Key questions that the workshop aims to explore are: What does it mean to be critical in the study of social media in organisations? What are the critical questions that we need to ask ourselves in the research community, and from which critical perspectives do we best study these questions? Finally, what are the methodological implications of applying critical theory to analysing social media?
The workshop has three main goals: (1) To establish an informal community of scholars interested in critical perspectives and their contribution to the study of social media in organisational contexts; (2) To learn about each other's ongoing research projects, and gain an understanding of the critical approaches undertaken at present; (3) To explore future directions and set out a research agenda, including the methodological and theoretical approaches that could be useful in doing so.
Submission Requirements
A short paper of 500 words focusing on one of six themes listed below, or other topics related to the workshop subject area. The short paper could describe completed, on-going or planned research related to the themes and may also be conceptual or empirical in nature.
Themes include but are not limited to:
1. Control and influence in social media, including how organisational structures are being reproduced in social media platforms creating potential information asymmetries amongst employees
2. Power and knowledge production, e.g. the creation and distribution of knowledge via social media and how power influences these processes
3. Panopticism/monitoring of social media use, e.g. the potential/experience of being watched or monitored by others (e.g. management) and how this regulates behaviour on platforms
4. Unpaid labour/shadow work through social media platforms, where employees are expected to engage with social media without getting resources and recognition to do so. This theme is also relevant in terms of the benefits and profits organisations may gain from people’s use, engagement and work in platforms
5. Commodification of users’ social media content and behaviour, focusing on people’s personal data and how this is being sold and used for profits and marketing of organisations
6. Ethics and privacy in social media, including how to assure that ethics and privacy are upheld via policies and strategies
Workshop Organisers
Dr Emma Forsgren, University of Leeds, e.forsgren@leeds.ac.uk
Dr Emma Gritt, University of Leeds, e.l.j.dunkerley@leeds.ac.uk
Professor Katriina Byström, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway, katriina.bystrom@oslomet.no
