Special Issue Call for Papers: What is alternative organization? Theorizing counter-hegemonic dynamics

Abstract

This call for papers aims to gather contributions for a special issue of Organization on the topic "What is alternative organization? Theorizing counter-hegemonic dynamics." We are particularly interested in receiving submissions that reflect subaltern
epistemologies that may reveal emancipatory possibilities beyond those apprehensible within Western thought, as well as contributions that build upon theory and praxis
developed in the Global South and within marginalized communities of all types.

Full text

CALL FOR PAPERS: SPECIAL ISSUE OF ORGANIZATION
What is alternative organization?
Theorizing counter-hegemonic dynamics
Sara Dahlman, Roskilde University, Denmark
Erik Mygind du Plessis, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Emil Husted, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
George Kandathil, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India
Genevieve Shanahan, Cardiff Business School, UK
Submission Deadline: March 31st, 2025
What qualifies a given organization as “alternative”? Alternative organizations
scholarship has emerged as a distinct subfield of management and organization studies in recent
decades, focused on empirical contexts including social movement organizations, cooperatives,
intentional communities, maker spaces, alternative food networks, etc. (Parker et al., 2014;
Phillips & Jeanes, 2018; Just, de Cock & Schaefer, 2021). These forms of organizing seem to
diverge from the mainstream in their unusual commitment to principles like autonomy,
solidarity, responsibility, frugal abundance, conviviality, care, or relocalization (e.g., Banerjee
et al., 2021; Daskalaki, Fotaki & Sotiropoulou, 2019; Meira, 2014; Parker et al., 2014) and
associated uncommon organizational structures and practices such as self-management,
horizontal decision-making, open meetings, or artistic self-expression (e.g., Bryer, 2020;
Kokkinidis, 2015; Reedy, King & Coupland, 2016; Reinecke, 2018). Rather than a clear
definition, however, these clusters of characteristics seem to add up to a “you know it when
you see it” test for whether a given organization can be considered “alternative”. We believe
such a loose characterization of alternative organizing is simultaneously too expansive and too
narrow.
First, the characterization is perhaps too expansive, given that at least some of these
characteristics could be claimed by mainstream forms of organizing (e.g., the self-management
practised in holacratic for-profit enterprises – Lee & Edmondson, 2017). Such inclusivity may
even run the risk of enabling the cooptation of our research by hegemonic actors – we have
seen, for instance, hypercapitalist enterprises like Uber and Airbnb positioning themselves as
“alternative” by aligning themselves with the “sharing economy” and emphasizing the
“autonomy” they offer workers (Ossewaarde & Reijers, 2017). Similarly, if an organization is
considered alternative simply if it displays some number of the above characteristics, on what
grounds do we exclude from consideration various modes of Alt-Right organizing (du Plessis
& Husted, 2022)? Alternative organizations scholarship is not merely interested in forms

organizing that are unusual, but rather those that run counter to political hegemony in some
manner (Esper et al., 2017; Zanoni, 2020).
Second, the above loose characterization is at the same time too narrow in that it will
tend to reproduce the preconceptions of those with power within our corner of the academy,
who are still disproportionately based in the Global North, white, male, cisgender, etc.
(Alcadipani & Hassard, 2010; Gopal, 2021; Vijay, 2023). By recognizing only those forms of
alternative organizing that immediately conform to the expectations of these powerful actors,
we risk overlooking important alternatives already in our midst – for instance, peasant and
indigenous organizations (Guimarães & Wanderley, 2022), indigenous entrepreneurship
initiatives (Peredo, 2023), anti-corporate LGBT organizing (Just, Christensen & Schwarzkopf,
2023), and bottom-up but state-instituted women’s empowerment programmes (Kandathil &
Chennangodu, 2020).
These neglected forms of alternative organizing systematically diverge from their more
well-studied counterparts not just due to the specificities of the sociopolitical contexts in which
they emerge, but also due to the different epistemologies they reflect (Contu, 2020;
Muzanenhamo & Chowdhury, 2023; Spivak, 1988). We wager that there are many more
existing alternatives that could enrich our understanding of the dynamics of counter-hegemonic
organizing, but recognizing these alternatives requires disrupting the “epistemologies of the
North” that erase praxis and theory developed in territories and communities subjected to
colonization and exploitation (Escobar, 2020; de Sousa Santos, 2020). Many such examples
offer alternatives to hegemonic discourses of sustainable development, for instance, emerging
from struggles to reconnect with nature and reconstruct communal space rooted in
philosophical approaches including Buen Vivir (Sumak Kawsay) in the Andean countries of
South America, Comunalidad in Oaxaca, Mexico, Ubuntu and related concepts in African
thought, the Pachamama of South American Indigenous peoples, and Vikalp Sangam and Dalit
philosophies in India, as well as non-Occidental forms of thought regarding modernity in the
West (de Sousa Santos, 2014).
The dual shortcomings of our current loose characterization demonstrate the political
stakes of specifying, or failing to specify, what counts as alternative organizing. If, for instance,
alternative organizations are defined substantively, specifically in terms of divergence from the
hegemonic capitalist, white-supremacist, colonial, patriarchal, heteronormative and
anthropocentric social order, is our scholarship’s contribution to these political struggles
necessarily enhanced? Or do we risk missing strategically important forms of organizing that
emerge in unexpected places, such as corporations or the party political system (Husted, 2021;
Skoglund & Böhm, 2019)? What might be the political consequences of defining alternative
organizing formally instead (Dahlman et al., 2022; Spicer & Alvesson, 2024)? For example, if
alternativity is defined in opposition to a relatively dominant social order, whatever that order
may be (Clarence-Smith & Monticelli, 2022; du Plessis & Just, 2022; Kandathil, 2015;
Shanahan et al., 2024), do we risk undermining the critical potential of alternative organizations
scholarship (Kothari et al., 2019; Shanahan, 2024)?

With this call for papers we hope to gather contributions, addressed to the community
of alternative organization scholarship, that wrestle with such political implications and, on
this basis, offer perspectives on the question of how alternative organizing should be
understood. We are particularly interested in receiving submissions that reflect subaltern
epistemologies that may reveal emancipatory possibilities beyond those apprehensible within
Western thought (Banerjee, 2022), as well as contributions that build upon theory and praxis
developed in the Global South (Varman & Vijay, 2022) and within marginalized communities
of all types (Bastien, Caraiola & Foster, 2023; Benschop, 2021; Couto, Honorato & de Pádua,
2012; Cutcher & Dale, 2023; Manning, 2021; Nkomo, 2021). Additionally, perspectives that
focus on alternative organizing for social transformation efforts, particularly regarding
biodiversity and climate crises (Munshi et al., 2022; Roux-Rosier, Azambuja & Islam, 2018;
Satgar, 2018) are highly encouraged, along with explorations of the novel epistemologies that
these may entail (Banerjee & Arjalies, 2021; Campbell, McHugh & Dylan-Ennis, 2019;
Jørgensen & Fatien, 2024).
We also welcome submissions that address methodological concerns specific to the
study of alternative organizations including, for instance, critical reflections on the onto-
epistemology of alternative organization scholarship (e.g., Dixit, 2023). We invite empirical
papers, critical literature reviews, conceptual essays, and contributions that assume a more
activist approach in accordance with the ‘Acting Up!’ section of Organization (Prichard &
Benschop, 2018). Specific questions contributors may wish to address include but are certainly
not limited to:
● What alternative forms of organizing can be identified beyond the limits of the usual
empirical contexts listed above, and how would recognizing these as alternatives
enhance the theory and praxis of alternative organizations scholarship?
● Against the “you know it when you see it” clusters of characteristics mentioned above,
what could be a more politically and epistemically robust definition of alternative
organizing?
● What valuable conceptualizations of alternative organizing might be developed when
organizational scholars make use of theories and epistemologies from the margins, such
as decolonial, feminist, Indigenous and queer theories?
● What ethical challenges arise in the course of research engagement with alternative
organizations, specifically, and how might we cope with these challenges
methodologically?
● What vocabularies for counter-hegemonic organizing might be developed when we
overcome a reliance on Western epistemologies? What research strategies for exploring
alternative organizations empirically are enabled by non-hegemonic epistemologies?

● What is the relationship between alternative organizations and “mainstream”
hegemonic organizations? How can counter-hegemonic forms of organizing diffuse in
contemporary society? What does it take to build and sustain alternatives in the face of
dominating hegemonic forces?
● What are the implications of different approaches to defining alternativity for the
critical performativity of alternative organizations scholarship?
● Is “alternative organizing” even a politically useful concept today? What other
concept(s) might be more pertinent?
Submitting your paper
Papers may be submitted electronically from March 1st, 2025 until the deadline date of
March 31st, 2025 to SAGETrack at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/organization. Papers
should be no more than 10,000 words, including references, and will be blind reviewed
following the journal’s standard review process. Manuscripts should be prepared according to
the guidelines published in Organization and on the journal’s website:
https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/organization#submission-guidelines
Authors may send in their ideas and queries to the SI editors at:
AlternativeOrganizationSI@gmail.com
Online paper development workshop at the end of November 2024
An online paper development workshop will be held at the end of November 2024. Working
short papers (max 3,000 words) should be submitted to through the email address
AlternativeOrganizationSI@gmail.com by November 10th, 2024.

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