The Actor-Reality Construction - XIth conference

Call For Papers on Pragmatic Constructivism and Construction of Organised Reality

The purpose of the conferences on actor-reality construction is to exchange research ideas and contributions to deepen insight into the problems and possibilities of constructing social human practices and strengthen the output of research articles and books. We welcome submissions within any topics that provide insight into the methods and techniques for the construction of (dys-)functional practices.

Specifically, he XIth conference maintains the focus on language game as the 2020 conference and will be interested in the role of different types of specialised language games (professionals, accounting, management, marketing, strategy, etc.) in the construction of (dys-)functional organisational practices. Language game means that human beings construct and organise in their everyday practices around the use of language as a set of narration. Such narration is blended with other forms of action. The language constructions developed in local practices must integrate the four dimensions of reality to function pragmatically, in order to create intentional results of organisational activities. As an organisation runs by multiple interconnected specialised language games that have to function successfully together, the conference will also provide insights on methods by which cooperation among the specialised language games can be successfully created. Additionally, we are curious about the role AI-languages and IT-systems are playing in the construction and management of specialised practices. Moving from the debate arisen during previous ARC conferences, we are interested in the distinction between language game and language play, in respect of emerging contexts where language play has a significant role in the construction of (dys-)functional organisational practices. The relevance of this issue stems from the current Covid-19 crisis and the related responses from organisations to construct new functional resilience practices. Finally, the conference will focus on the role of research methodologies and meta-language games in the construction of organisational practices and the form (and deform) of reality constructions they create. A major concern is the soundness, ethics and the role of the emerging language games in creating or negating intelligent learning- and value-oriented organisations.

The possible subject areas of the desired submissions include (but are not limited to) the following:

– Language games of performance management and accounting in professional driven public sector activities, various types of business activities, industries consultancy and firm advisor relation, milieus of user participation facilitated by the social Web, NPD projects, entrepreneurial companies, learning platforms, inter-organisational relations, etc.
– Language games of possibilities, the good, ethics, democracy, digitalisation, organisational cooperation, organisational learning, corporate social responsibility, meta theories, etc.
– Language games and language plays in constructing (dys-)functional resilience practices to deal with Covid-19 emergency and economic crisis.

The conference invites three categories of contributions: i) Full papers, ii) Abstracts and iii) PhD-projects. There will be enough time for in-depth discussions and reflections among the participants, which will  hopefully develop their thoughts and paper writings further.

About pragmatic constructivism and actor-reality construction

Pragmatic  constructivism  conceives  reality  as  a  complex  set  of  constructs  created  by  the  actors  in interaction with their environment. Interacting with others and ‘things’ in the world through language and actions,  actors  produce  common  reality  constructs,  which  are  the  basis  of  practice.  Pragmatic constructivism  offers  some  conceptual  fundamentals  for  understanding  and  analysing  how  actors construct a successful actor-world relationship in a dynamic environment. In particular the following are considered to be conceptual fundamentals: practice constructed through actorship, language games and co-authorship; four dimensions of reality – facts, possibilities, values, and communication – must be integrated in the actor-world relation if the construct is to form a successful basis for effective actions, organisational learning, and an integrative learning theory of truth involving a learning circle between proactive truth and pragmatic truth. The previous conferences have produced various theoretical and empirical contributions within different academic fields.

Organizing committee:
– Antonio Leotta, University of Catania, Italy
– Carmela Rizza, University of Catania, Italy
– Daniela Ruggeri, University of Catania, Italy
– Teemu Laine, Tampere University, Finland
– Lino Cinquini, Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna, Pisa, Italy
– Daniela Pianezzi, University of Essex, UK
– Hanne Nørreklit, Aarhus University, Denmark

Submission and contacts to:
– leottant@unict.it and
– hannenorreklit@mgmt.au.dk
Deadline for submissions: 1, August, 2021
Deadline for registration: 21, August, 2021
Fee: €180,00 for the conference; €60,00 for the tour.

 

Program

Thursday, 30 September

10:00 – 10:15
Welcome and Hello

10:15 – 11:15
Chair: Andrea Tenucci

  • Validity, ontology, and conceptual illusions
    Presenter: Lennart Nørreklit | Discussant: Lino Cinquini
  • Universities in numbers: an international comparative analysis of the role of digitalization
    Presenters: Sara Giovanna Mauro, Lino Cinquini, Margit Malmmose, Hanne Nørreklit | Discussant: Daniela Pianezzi

11:15 – 11:30
Break out room and coffee

11:30 – 12:30
Chair: Lino Cinquini

  • Action based cost management – from budget numbers to reality and back
    Presenter: Morten Jakobsen | Discussant: Carmela Rizza
  • Overlapping family and managerial values: The role of management accounting tools
    Presenters: Antonio Leotta, Carmela Rizza, Daniela Ruggeri | Discussant: Tuomas Korhonen

12:30 – 13:45
Break out room and Lunch

13:45 – 15:15
Chair: Antonio Leotta

  • The digitalization of control systems and its impact on new product development processes
    Presenter: Mariastella Messina | Discussants: Fabio Magnacca, Lars Bo Henriksen
  • Enabling formalizations of remote work: Language games dealing with short-term and long-term impacts
    Presenters: Teemu Laine, Tuomas Korhonen, Natalia Saukkonen | Discussant: Andrea Tenucci
  • Developing a management accounting system to cross the ‘Valley of Death’: insights from a pragmatic constructivist perspective
    Presenters: Riccardo Giannetti, Fabio Magnacca | Discussants: Morten Jakobsen, Margit Malmmose

15:15 – 16:30
Break out Salon
Topic: Language games and validity
Intro: Hanne Nørreklit

19:00
Dinner (for participants in Catania)

 

Friday, 1 October

10:00 – 11:00
Chair: Carmela Rizza

  • Governing by gender: insights into gender budgeting in Japan
    Presenters: Daniela Pianezzi, Chieko Inaba | Discussants: Lisa Jack, Daniela Ruggeri
  • Our Social Media Kids
    Presenter: Lars Haahr | Discussants: Jakob Liboriussen, Mariastella Messina

11:00 – 11:15
Break out room and coffee

11:15 – 12:15
Chair: Margit Malmmose

  • Moral superiority and neoliberal crisis experience: An analysis locating the German Corona discourses
    Presenter: David Kergel | Discussant: Giacomo Pigatto
  • A learning method of trust building: beyond the performance management of artistic events
    Presenters: Jakob Liboriussen, Hanne Nørreklit, Mihaela Trenca | Discussant: Lars Haahr

12:15 – 13:45
Break out room and Lunch

13:45 – 15:00
Chair: Morten Jakobsen

  • Management control practice as a narrative
    Presenter: Antonio Leotta | Discussant: Sara Giovanna Mauro
  • On is and ought – fact and obligation
    Presenter: Lennart Nørreklit | Discussants: Antonio Leotta, David Kergel

15:00 – 16:00
Break out Salon and Conclusion
Topic: Ways of analyzing language games
Intro: Hanne Nørreklit