Archive
02. september 2014
The Copenhagen Clibyg Workshop 2014
Søren Houen Schmidt
At last year’s CLIBYG workshop (November 2013), we agreed that the tradition of a yearly workshop was worth maintaining. The purpose is to provide an open space for academic discussions on topics and ideas that are of common interest and concern to the participants. It is fair to say that the group has demonstrated a sufficient overlap of concerns and perspectives to make ongoing conversations meaningful and stimulating. Thus, we propose to meet once again in Copenhagen in November 2014 and we invite you to come.
Last year we also talked about organizing a two-step workshop, with a reading group session in preparation for the workshop itself. We have decided to combine the two parts of the events in a way that will be described below.
The format
As we agreed last year, we are not interested in traditional paper presentations. We have plenty of alternative opportunities for participating in such focused discussions. As the workshop aims to be an alternative and a supplement to traditional workshops and conferences, we focus on more fundamental issues, such as purpose, meaning, intellectual causes, theoretical dilemmas, etc.
The workshop shall be an antidote to the ongoing instrumentalization of academic life, be playful and explorative in nature, and have no other outputs than inspiration and motivation.
The theme
One way or the other, we are all interested in projects, e.g. as an object of design and management. But few of us are interested in the dominant way of theorizing projects. There must be more interesting and stimulating ways of talking about projects and more interesting lessons to be learnt from the history of projects than what we are presently offered in the academic and popular literature.
One strategy for finding more interesting and stimulating ways of talking about projects is to find literature outside the field of project management which we find interesting and stimulating and then make it relevant to projects. Probably, we all know “irrelevant” texts that we found inspirational and that made an impact on our thinking. Fiction, philosophy, ethnography, organizational behavior, cognitive psychology, behavioral accounting … literature that we normally do not think about and with when thinking about projects. But perhaps we should and the workshop explores what would happen if we did.
The theme is therefore:
ReconTEXTualizing projects as objects of research.
The plan
Each participant selects and submits a text which is drawn from outside the project management literature. In principle, such a text is irrelevant because it belongs to a different conversation, a different domain with a specific set of limitations on what its members seek to know. But each participant will make the text relevant by showing how thinking and reflecting with the text’s perspective and knowledge may challenge our thinking about project management dilemmas and reflections. In a presentation to the workshop, the participant will illustrate how it is possible to think about projects with his or her “irrelevant” text. The workshop will then play with the idea and make the text relevant and inspiring.
When picking a text for the workshop, the participant does not have to agree with and be a spokesperson for it. It is not the text itself, but its way of offering new perspectives and raising interesting questions in relation to projects that counts. Normally, however, it is more meaningful to spend time on texts that you enjoy reading in the first place, so let us aspire to do so.
The time table
By September 15: confirm your participation in the workshop by sending a mail to the organizers.
By November 15: submit the “irrelevant” text to the workshop organizers.
Before departing for Copenhagen, please prepare your presentation of the irrelevant text and your take on how to make it relevant to projects and project management.
November 26: arrive in Copenhagen. We go out for dinner together.
November 27 (9 am) – November 28 (3 pm): Workshop at Copenhagen Business School
The economic frame
As we informed you last year, we have no financial means for a “fancy” workshop. Thus, the workshop will be held on the campus of CBS and you will have to find accommodations in Copenhagen on your own. We will organize meals, but with the exception of lunches, coffees and the like, you will have to pay on your own. There will be charged no workshop fee.
Participants
The format of the workshop puts a strict limit on the number of participants. 30 participants will be considered the maximum, but the ideal number is probably closer to 20. We send out invitations to the people who participated in earlier workshops. Feel free to circulate to others whom you would like to share this experience with.
Conference organizers
Jan Mouritsen (jm.om@cbs.dk), Kristian Kreiner (kk.ioa@cbs.dk), Lise Justesen (lj.ioa@cbs.dk) & Kjell Tryggestand (kt.ioa@cbs.dk)
Last year we also talked about organizing a two-step workshop, with a reading group session in preparation for the workshop itself. We have decided to combine the two parts of the events in a way that will be described below.
The format
As we agreed last year, we are not interested in traditional paper presentations. We have plenty of alternative opportunities for participating in such focused discussions. As the workshop aims to be an alternative and a supplement to traditional workshops and conferences, we focus on more fundamental issues, such as purpose, meaning, intellectual causes, theoretical dilemmas, etc.
The workshop shall be an antidote to the ongoing instrumentalization of academic life, be playful and explorative in nature, and have no other outputs than inspiration and motivation.
The theme
One way or the other, we are all interested in projects, e.g. as an object of design and management. But few of us are interested in the dominant way of theorizing projects. There must be more interesting and stimulating ways of talking about projects and more interesting lessons to be learnt from the history of projects than what we are presently offered in the academic and popular literature.
One strategy for finding more interesting and stimulating ways of talking about projects is to find literature outside the field of project management which we find interesting and stimulating and then make it relevant to projects. Probably, we all know “irrelevant” texts that we found inspirational and that made an impact on our thinking. Fiction, philosophy, ethnography, organizational behavior, cognitive psychology, behavioral accounting … literature that we normally do not think about and with when thinking about projects. But perhaps we should and the workshop explores what would happen if we did.
The theme is therefore:
ReconTEXTualizing projects as objects of research.
The plan
Each participant selects and submits a text which is drawn from outside the project management literature. In principle, such a text is irrelevant because it belongs to a different conversation, a different domain with a specific set of limitations on what its members seek to know. But each participant will make the text relevant by showing how thinking and reflecting with the text’s perspective and knowledge may challenge our thinking about project management dilemmas and reflections. In a presentation to the workshop, the participant will illustrate how it is possible to think about projects with his or her “irrelevant” text. The workshop will then play with the idea and make the text relevant and inspiring.
When picking a text for the workshop, the participant does not have to agree with and be a spokesperson for it. It is not the text itself, but its way of offering new perspectives and raising interesting questions in relation to projects that counts. Normally, however, it is more meaningful to spend time on texts that you enjoy reading in the first place, so let us aspire to do so.
The time table
By September 15: confirm your participation in the workshop by sending a mail to the organizers.
By November 15: submit the “irrelevant” text to the workshop organizers.
Before departing for Copenhagen, please prepare your presentation of the irrelevant text and your take on how to make it relevant to projects and project management.
November 26: arrive in Copenhagen. We go out for dinner together.
November 27 (9 am) – November 28 (3 pm): Workshop at Copenhagen Business School
The economic frame
As we informed you last year, we have no financial means for a “fancy” workshop. Thus, the workshop will be held on the campus of CBS and you will have to find accommodations in Copenhagen on your own. We will organize meals, but with the exception of lunches, coffees and the like, you will have to pay on your own. There will be charged no workshop fee.
Participants
The format of the workshop puts a strict limit on the number of participants. 30 participants will be considered the maximum, but the ideal number is probably closer to 20. We send out invitations to the people who participated in earlier workshops. Feel free to circulate to others whom you would like to share this experience with.
Conference organizers
Jan Mouritsen (jm.om@cbs.dk), Kristian Kreiner (kk.ioa@cbs.dk), Lise Justesen (lj.ioa@cbs.dk) & Kjell Tryggestand (kt.ioa@cbs.dk)