Workshop theme
The 2023 Workshop Theme on intersectionality and business recognises the paramount importance of a diversity of voices and unique experiences in the multi-layered aspects of business and its ancillaries. Kimberle Crenshaw is credited with coining the term intersectionality in 1989, although claims about the interconnectedness of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other social identities were part of the everyday life experiences of many marginalised social groups activities and of other academic writings before that as well. It was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2015 and defined as ‘the interconnected nature of social categorisations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage’. It is a powerful analytical framework and tool for academic scholarship, and a compelling driver for societal, policy, and legislative movement, change and development.
As scholars, practitioners, and citizens in our different communities, we can see intersectionality as a call to go beyond conversations about equal opportunities, equal progression, and equal experiences. The realities of living in the 21st century mean that equality is often misconstrued with equity; that discrimination and disadvantages take many shapes in the Maslow-like hierarchy of discrimination and disadvantages. New awareness and understandings of systemic problems in societies, relevant for business and more broadly for our societies, economies and for the individual form the backdrop for this workshop. The workshop wishes to explore intersectionality and business in ways that will make us rethink how oppressive power structures are placed, how structural and systemic inequalities can permeate many aspects of just ‘being’ and ‘existing’, and how we might be able to use this knowledge to centre voices and experiences of marginalised communities. Hence, the theme of this workshop encourages participants to use the lens and narratives of intersectionality, in theoretical or practically oriented analyses concerning business.
Preparation for the Workshop
Workshop spaces for the physical workshop are limited up to 14 participants so that each participant can benefit from extended discussion of her work. The selection of participants is competitive, based on the quality and thematic fit of the submitted abstract with the workshop theme. The workshop sessions are shaped to ensure interactive discussion, with two commentators per paper. Each participant will accordingly be asked to prepare comments for two other papers.
Timely submission of working papers is a condition for workshop participation. Short working papers of a maximum of 2,500 words including footnotes will be due by 15 May 2023 (10.00pm CEST) (extended deadline). The word limit for the short working papers is chosen to enable all workshop participants to read all papers in preparation for the workshop, and to give space for developing the themes of the individual papers after the workshop, based on the comments and discussion. The limit for the full-length papers will normally be at around 8,000 words (to be announced)
A peer-reviewed joint publication of selected workshop papers is envisaged, after follow-up workshops in the autumn of 2023. We will therefore only accept original research, which is not submitted for publication elsewhere, and we request that the workshop participants commit to this publication process within a reasonable timeline, to be agreed upon at the workshop.
Practical Details about the Workshop
The workshop will be held on Tuesday 30th May to Friday 2nd June 2023 at the Cavo Perlevos guesthouse on the Greek island of Kea, with self-contained studios with a bedroom, kitchen area and bathroom. Kea is reached by ferry from the port of Lavrio (near Athens). There will be a social day on Monday 29th May on Kea. An (optional) social evening/night will also be held on Friday 2nd June followed by a dinner in Athens that evening for those staying over in Athens.
The workshop itself is also structured to allow for individual and collegiate social time.
Organising committee for the 2023 workshop
- Sanja Mihalić, PhD candidate, Attorney-at-Law and Partner, Mihalić & Pikija LLC, Zagreb, Croatia
- Dr. Yue S. Ang, Associate Professor, Law and Social Sciences, London South Bank University, England
- Dr. Pin Lean Lau, Assistant Professor, Brunel Law School, Brunel University London, England
- Lívia Gil Guimarães, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Logistics on the ground in Greece: Professor Beate Sjåfjell, University of Oslo