[FQS] Newsletter October 2009

[Katja Mruck <katja.mruck@fu-berlin.de>]

Dear All,

Today only a short information, concerning two projects FQS is involved 
in. The regular newsletter will follow end of November.

A. CfP FQS Special Issue "Methods for Qualitative Management Research"
B. CfP Conference "Is Qualitative Data Analysis Software really comparable?"

Wishing you a nice weekend!
Katja Mruck

This newsletter is sent to 11,661 registered readers.

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A) CfP FQS Special Issue "Methods for Qualitative Management Research in 
the Context of Social Systems Thinking"

Editors:
Patricia Wolf (Switzerland), Jens Meissner (Switzerland), Terry Nolan 
(NZ), Mark Lemon (UK), Rene John (Germany), Evangelia Baralou (Greece), 
Silke Seemann (Austria)

The term "social systems," as applied in the title of this proposed 
special issue, is derived chiefly from the theoretical starting point 
propounded by Niklas LUHMANN. This call is intended to raise the profile 
of his work in the wider English speaking research community. His work 
on organizations as autopoietic social systems has only recently and 
partly been made available in English. Although there exists a broad but 
relatively exclusive German speaking scientific community using this 
theoretical approach for research, the theory is taking a relatively 
long amount of time to be acknowledged, developed, applied and critiqued 
in the English speaking research community.

However, some basic theoretical assumptions are reflected in the field 
of complexity science as applied in the management domain, social 
constructionists' work and researchers seeking to (re-)construct 
organizations as distributed self-regulating knowledge. Other related 
streams highlighting a sympathetic systemic understanding of 
organizations/institutions include GIDDEN's structuration theory (1984), 
BOJE's (2001) work on metaphors, narratives, and storytelling, LATOUR's 
(1987) and WOOLGAR's (1996) use of "actor-network theory," as well as 
MACKENZIE and WAJCMAN's (1999) focus on the social construction of 
technology, and no doubt others.

A key assumption this call for papers rests on, therefore, is our belief 
that the reluctance of the scientific community to apply LUHMANN's 
social system theory in management research boils down to: 1) the 
relative difficulty readers face when trying to follow his writing and 
the complexity of the theoretical approach, and, 2) more significantly, 
a missing methodological basis for conducting research grounded in 
LUHMANN's social system theory and related theoretical approaches. 
Therefore, for this special issue, we are seeking:

-- theoretical papers reviewing the broad landscape of existing 
qualitative research methods and developing an adequate methodological 
canon for research grounded in LUHMANNs' social system theory and 
related theoretical approaches (literature reviews following the 
systematic review style will be especially welcomed);
-- empirical papers describing the application of specific qualitative 
research methods actually used in research projects grounded in 
LUHMANN's social system theory and related theoretical approaches and 
the empirical significance of research results.

An extended abstracts (3000 words) should be submitted to the editorial 
team by 15th December 2009 to Patricia Wolf: pawolf@ethz.ch

See http://www.qualitative-forschung.de/en/fqs-supplement/cfp/10-3.html 
for additional information.


B) CfP Conference "Is Qualitative Data Analysis Software really comparable?"

The deadline for paper submission for the KWALON Conference "Is 
Qualitative Data Analysis Software really comparable?" is nearing its 
end (November 15). So please click the link or past the next URL into 
your webbrowser and have a look at the Call for Papers for further 
instruction on your paper:
http://www.kwalon.nl/JE%20Call%20for%20papers%20conference%20kwalon%20def.pdf 


Of course, the registration is open now, and the early bird fee applies 
until November 30! So inscribe yourself timely with the online 
registration form which can be found at:

http://www.kwalon.nl/formulier.php

Further information on the location and program (we've found 9 
developers of analysis software willing to participate in our 
experiment!) can be obtained by clicking this URL/pasting it into your 
webbrowser:

http://www.kwalon.nl/Conferentie%20Software%202010.html

The general website is http://www.kwalon.nl/. Here all the info 
mentioned before is obtainable by several links.

We are surely hoping to see you in The Netherlands in April!

Kind regards, the organizing committee:
Jeanine Evers
Christina Silver
Katja Mruck
Bart Peeters

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FQS - Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung
/ Forum: Qualitative Social Research (ISSN 1438-5627)

http://www.qualitative-research.net/
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