Critical discourse studies: Where to from here?

This paper surveys critical discourse studies to the present and claims that, to avoid lapsing into comfortable orthodoxy in its mature phase, CDS needs to reassert its transformative radical teleology. The initial part of the paper reasserts the need for a strong social theory given the materialist and context-bound nature of discourse in daily activity. From this basis, the paper then characterizes the “new times” in which contemporary discourse occurs, and briefly surveys those issues typically analyzed, namely political economy, race and gender, and critical literacy. By considering people's ordinary lives, the paper then suggests that subject and agency, and calculative technologies of management deserve, and new modalities need, more research. Transdisciplinarity is encouraged, particularly with social psychology and critical management studies.

Mi a baj a modern szervezetekkel? – Kritikai menedzsmentelméletek (What is the problem in modern organisations? – Critical Management Studies)

A nemzetközi, elsősorban európai szervezettudományban mára meghatározóvá vált a kritikai megközelítés, a hazai szakirodalomban mégis elvétve találni rá utalásokat. A szerzők írásukban tárgyalják, hogy a kritikai menedzsmentelméletek (KME) szemszögéből miként bírálható a mindenkori szervezeti gyakorlat, és miért bírálandók a főáramú menedzsmentelméletek. A tanulmány fő részében elméleti megkülönböztetéseket tesznek: egyrészt elhatárolják a kritikai megközelítést a főáramú szervezetelméletektől, másrészt több szempontból is különbséget tesznek a különféle – de egyaránt a KME alá tartozó – kritikai megközelítések között. De a kritikai szemlélethez hűen nem csak a puszta elméletismertetés volt a céljuk: e bevezetés és problémafelvető tanulmány – s a későbbiekben tervezett cikksorozat – szándékuk szerint vitaindítóként is szolgál. Abban bíznak, hogy a felvetett kérdésekről valódi, lényegi párbeszédet generálhatnak a hazai menedzsmenttudományban (kutatók, oktatók és elméletalkalmazók körében), mely kihathat a szervezeti gyakorlatra is. _____ Critical Management Studies (CMS) as a field of organization studies (OS) has become central internationally, and especially in Europe. Yet, its appearance is still very rare in the Hungarian OS literature. In this study first the authors discuss how the nowadays dominant organizational practices along with the mainstream management and organization theories are to be criticized from a Critical Management perspective. In the main section, so as to define CMS, they make important theoretical distinctions, first between CMS and mainstream organization theories (in general), and then among the different critical approaches that nevertheless all fall under the broad CMS umbrella. But, in line with a truly critical attitude, they not only go into theoretical discussions but, at least to their intention, the purpose of this introductory paper is also to addresses important problems both in the theory and the practice of organization and management. Therefore, it could serve as an opening of an important debate or dialogue in the Hungarian academic community (researchers, educators and other professionals), a theoretical discussion that could have real influence on organizational practice too.

Kritikai menedzsmentelméletek – irányzatok és törésvonalak (Critical Management Studies: Streams and Debates)

A tanulmány a kritikai menedzsmentelméletek (KME) területére nyújt bevezetést a Hidegh – Gelei – Primecz (2014) által a Vezetéstudomány hasábjain kezdeményezett cikksorozat részeként. A KME fogalmát a korábbi, szervezetelméleti paradigmákat ismertető tanulmányoktól eltérő módon, a mátrixokon át-/ túllépve lépcsőszerűen tárgyalja. Bemutatja, hogyan definiálhatjuk kritikai módon a menedzsmentet és a menedzsmentelméleteket, majd a KME meghatározása és három legfontosabb jellemzője (denaturalizáció, teljesítményelv-ellenesség, reflexivitás) következik. A cikk ismerteti a KME három legmarkánsabb irányzatát: a posztmodernizmust, a kritikai elméletet és a kritikai realizmust, valamint az irányzatok közötti főbb vitapontokba nyújt betekintést. ____ The article provides an introduction into Critical Management Studies (CMS) continuing the series of papers about CMS started by Hidegh – Gelei – Primecz (2014) on the pages of Budapest Management Review. CMS is defined here in a different way as in the previously published Hungarian articles which were based on the Burrell-Morgan matrix (1979). This study exceeds the boundaries of the matrix by introducing management and management studies as a critical field step by step. The definition of CMS is followed by the main features of the field: denaturalization, anti-performativity and reflexivity (Fournier – Grey, 2000). Finally, the paper discusses the three most prevailing streams of CMS: postmodernism, critical theory and critical realism by providing an insight into the main debates among them.

Language policy and critical discourse studies:towards an integrated approach

This chapter offers a framework for combining critical language policy with critical discourse studies (CDS) to analyse language policy as a process in the context of minority language policy in Wales. I propose a discursive approach to language policy, which starts from the premise that language policy is constituted, enacted, interpreted and (re)contextualised in and through language. This approach extends the critical language policy framework provided by Shohamy (Language policy: hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge, London, 2006) and integrates perspectives from the context-sensitive discourse-historical approach in CDS. It incorporates discourse as an essential lens through which policy mechanisms, ideologies and practices are constituted and de facto language policy materialises. This chapter argues that conceptualising and analysing language policy as a discursive phenomenon enables a better understanding of the multi-layered nature of language policy that shapes the management and experience of corporate bilingualism in Wales.

Crafting and retelling everyday lives : disabled people's contribution to bioethical concerns

This commentary draws out themes from the narrative symposium on “living with the label “disability”” from the perspective of auto/biography and critical disability studies in the humanities. It notes the disconnect between the experiences discussed in the stories and the preoccupations of bioethicists. Referencing Rosemarie Garland-Thompson’s recent work, it suggests that life stories by people usually described as “disabled” offer narrative, epistemic and ethical resources for bioethics. The commentary suggests that the symposium offers valuable conceptual tools and critiques of taken-for-granted terms like “dependency”. It notes that these narrators do not un–problematically embrace the term “disability”, but emphasize the need to redefine, strategically deploy or reject this term. Some accounts are explicitly critical of medical practitioners while others redefine health and wellbeing, emphasizing the need for reciprocity and respect for the knowledge of people with disability, including knowledge from their experience of “the variant body” (Leach Scully, 2008).

Estee Klar fonds, 2005-2014

Estee Klar is the founder and executive director of The Autism Acceptance Project, an organization that strives to support people with autism by promoting acceptance and inclusion of these individuals. She is the mother of a son, Adam, who has autism, and writes about her experiences with him on her blog, found at http://www.esteeklar.com. She also writes about issues concerning autism in the area of human rights, law, and social justice, and has contributed to several books, including The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism, Between Interruptions: Thirty Women Tell the Truth about Motherhood, and Concepts of Normality: The Autistic and Typical Spectrum. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate at York University, Critical Disability Studies, as well as a writer and freelance curator of art.