How to change the world? The art of sustainability

Date : 20 and 21th June 2022

Location : Audencia Business School, Nantes, France

Call for papers: Deadline 20 February 2022.

Event's website

Audencia is hosting the 2022 edition of the Business & Society Research Seminar for PhD students and
emerging scholars;

Are you a PhD candidate or an emerging scholar conducting research in the field of Business and Society, Sustainable Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development Goals, Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship or a related topic?
Do you want to discuss one of your research papers or your PhD project with leading scholars in the field to enhance your ability to write and review scholarly publications?
Are you looking for some mentoring from leading experts or do you want to develop your academic network?

Then we encourage you to submit your contribution! Deadline 20 February 2022.

OBJECTIVES OF THE SEMINAR

The objective of this two-day seminar is to bring together doctoral students, emerging scholars, and more experienced academics to present and discuss their research projects and receive feedback in a stimulating, developmental and friendly atmosphere. We will explore commonalities as well as differences in each other’s research approaches and themes in an inspiring, sociable, and convivial academic setting. This seminar consists in a mix of plenary sessions, paper and poster presentation sessions as well as several workshops around career development and publications strategy. All sessions will involve fellow PhD students, emerging scholars, and more experienced researchers and journal editors.

CONFERENCE THEME - How to change the world?

There are no easy or instant solutions to the global challenges we are facing. Real and equitable transition to a more sustainable world necessitates continued and accelerated actions in multiple domains. It requires shifting behaviors and thinking, building new infrastructure and systems, and keeping the pressure on businesses, policymakers and transnational entities to reach the Sustainable Development
Goals by 2030.
To build a sustainable future, we need to call upon our imagination and creative skills. We need to think differently, see problems in new ways, and develop innovative
responses.

….in other words to call upon the art of sustainability…

This year’s seminar wants to examine the art of sustainably in all its aspects, forms and meanings. It is a call for boldness and imagination but also a call to reconnect to our emotions and to nature, and move towards the system changes that are required.

…art such as…

Artwork to inspire change, shift perspectives, connect with emotions, help us imagine alternative futures, liberate us, make visible the invisible. Art can
be a catalyst to foster sustainability thinking and help us overcome barriers.

State of the Art to create a masterpiece, to understand where the B&S field is and where it is going, what is missing or not working, our research
needs to engage with the state of the art.

Artful Teaching to transform our systems, we need the right skills and mindsets.

Performing Arts to change organizations and address sustainability challenges, we need to walk the talk, organizations need the proper tools,
techniques, knowledge and skills.

Artfolio publications yes, but we need to think about how to build a well-balanced portfolio of publications and keep some freedom to publish
unconventional articles.

Artivism to bring about change, we need to shift perspectives and inspire. The art of activism, in all its various forms, can help to provoke and contribute to
sustainable development.

Artist’s Retreat to be working at the forefront of sustainability is not always easy and requires not only to care for our art but also caring for ourselves. Artistic Impression… to communicate about our research in an unexpected and stimulating manner, the usual ‘ppt’ is not always the most inspiring and appropriate way. Maybe we could think of other ways to present and share our research.

A Blank Canvas for everything that we haven’t thought of yet…

KEYNOTES

Everything you wanted to know about organization theory and were afraid to ask Joseph Beuys By André Spicer, Professor of Organizational Behavior and the interim Dean of Bayes Business School in London, UK.

André is known for his research on wellbeing, organizational politics, organizational culture, employee identity, new organizational forms, work space and leadership. He has published extensively in top scholarly journals such as Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies and Harvard Business Review. He has also published many books and written frequently for newspapers like the Guardian and Financial Times.

Nomadic Discourses: The Role of the Humanities in Posthuman Epistemology By Douglas Atkinson, Free University of Brussels, Belgium.

Douglas Atkinson teaches at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel where he lectures in critical thinking, rhetoric, and academic composition. He holds a PhD in philosophy and specializes in 20th century Continental Philosophy, with an emphasis on the intersection between philosophy and literature. His research focuses primarily on the philosophic import of Maurice Blanchot and his influence on the philosophy of language. His most recent publications have appeared in Twentieth-Century Literature and Samuel Becket Today/Aujourd’hui, and he has organized conferences on Samuel Beckett and the Nonhuman and Samuel Beckett and the Anthropocene. He is currently working on a critical rereading of the Japanese reception of Samuel Beckett’s prose.

PRACTICAL DETAILS

At this stage, we are planning for on-site participation. Of course, we will further evaluate the situation in light of COVID-19 and if necessary, we will consider organizing
the event on-line – the decision will be taken a minimum of 3 months in advance.
The 2022 seminar will take place at Audencia, Nantes (France). If you have any questions, please contact us at BSS-2022@audencia.com. For more information, please visit the conference website.

ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS

The 2022 edition of the Business & Society seminar will be hosted by Audencia Business School which is located in Nantes (France), a city on the Loire River in the Upper Brittany region of western France. The event is supported by GAIA (Audencia’s school of ecological and social transition) and the Positive Impact Chair. The event is also financially supported by LouRIM Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations (UCLouvain, Belgium), IÉSEG Center for Organizational Responsibility (ICOR) at IÉSEG School of Management and LEM-CNRS (France), ICHEC Brussels Management School (Belgium), VU Amsterdam (The Netherlands), and University of Namur (Belgium).