Special Issue on: “Transitional Space”

Guest Editors: Jerzy Kociatkiewicz & Monika Kostera

For Tamara Journal of Critical Organization Inquiry http://tamarajournal.com

Call Close Date: 1 December 2009 

Liminality is the state betwixt and between more stable states and realities. In anthropology authors such as Arnold von Gennep and Victor Turner have described liminality as a transitory stage in rituals, especially in rites of passage. It is conceived of as a state of blurred boundaries, a mode where the usual constraints of normality, common sense, and cultural definitions do not apply, where norms are relaxed and there is a particular openness to experimentation and the creation of a sense of community. During the liminal phase there develops a special bond between those who go through it together, known as comunitas – based on humanity and disregarding of structures and hierarchies of the outside culture.

Liminality is not only a temporal characteristic. Indeed, we see transitional space as the physical archetype of liminality: the space waiting for liminality to happen, or else, just the undefined, indefinite space that allows for many interpretations and uses. It may also be a space reclaimed by the underdogs, or forgotten by management and reconstructed by the organization’s participants as a cultural sanctuary or symbolic retreat.

We would like to invite our Contributors to reflect on the role that transitional space can play in organizations. Is it an empty space, like the bare stage of Peter Brookes’ minimal theatre? Is it a non-place like those identified by Marc Augé as epitomes of supermodernity? Or is it a managed space, one with a role to fill in the social architecture of modern organizations? Where does one find transitional space in work organizations? Contributors are invited to consider such themes as, for example:

• Temporariness and the organization of space
• Spaces and places of transit
• Spaces for communitas in organizations
• Organizational sanctuaries
• Reclaimed organizational spaces
• Organizational spaces of dream and imagination
• The possibility and threat of liminal management
• Organizational no-man’s lands

All papers will be subject to normal refereeing process. Authors wishing to discuss their paper prior to submission may contact either of the Special Issue Guest Editors. The deadline for submission of papers is 1 December 2009, but earlier submissions are encouraged. Authors should submit their manuscripts electronically (in word or word perfect format) to the Guest Editors:.

Dr Jerzy Kociatkiewicz

Essex Business School

University of Essex

Wivenhoe Park

CO4 3SQ Colchester

United Kingdom

jkociat@essex.ac.uk

Prof. dr hab. Monika Kostera

School of Management

University of Warsaw

Szturmowa 1/3

03-678 Warszawa

Poland

monika@kostera.pl