Call for Contributions – Celebrating 70 years: Reimagining Human Relations in our Time
Taking
place over four days, Reimagining Human Relations in our Time will be a
multi-sited event taking place in the public domain. Its aims are:
To
engage and expand research interest in the Tavistock Institute’s
archive material that is being catalogued at the Wellcome Library.
To
invite creative participation in our programme of work; our
philosophical approach; applied methodologies and their potential in
tackling current societal challenges.
To
offer activities consistent with the Tavistock Institute’s history and
practice that will support an improved understanding of wellbeing- in
its individual, organisational
and societal dimensions.
The
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (TIHR) applies social science to
contemporary issues and problems, in relation to group and
organisational behaviour. The Institute is currently
in the process of uncovering and cataloguing its extensive and rich
archive at Wellcome Library, which is being released in batches to open
up research possibilities.
The
archive provides a comprehensive record of the formation,
establishment, and development of the Tavistock Institute, charting the
emergence of integrated multi-disciplinary research
in the social sciences and organisational design in the twentieth
century.
These
papers document the working methods and processes of this pioneering
group of social scientists, including anthropologists and
psychoanalysts. The archive contains lively and reflective
traces of their methodological workings and practices in key industrial
and organisational projects. From the coal face and cotton mills, to
studies on the psychology of pleasure foods, the collection is a vibrant
and diverse sideways look at life in Britain
in the late twentieth century.
We are inviting your responses under the following themes:
NOW: Letters from the new social ecology
This
theme invites contributions that explore the world we live in. It is
about the research that informs emerging and evolving practice.
Contributions under this theme will be the ‘Now’ of
Reimagining Human Relations in our Time. Concepts to explore include
‘boundaries’ (their nature as borders and/or bridges?); ‘culture’;
‘environment’; ‘knowledge’; ‘ecology’ and the relationship amongst them.
HERE: Evolving practice in our informed society
This
theme is about how we practise in the ‘Now’. We invite contribution
from practitioners across the spectrum of the Tavistock Institute’s
programme of work, including theorists, deliverers
and those on the receiving end: the clients’ voices. Under this theme
we are interested in what the implications of being ‘Here’ are for
contemporary practice; in new approaches to working in an uncertain
world; in our changing relations with data; in evaluating
in a complex world; in new cases of socio technical practice.
THERE: In the Shadow and Light of the Archive
This
theme takes a historical lens to reflect on the meaning of the
Tavistock Institute’s work including the ways in which our archive
contributes to organisational development practice; moving
from the seminal work as shadows towards standing on the shoulders of
giants. We are interested in a wider range of contributors and (inter-)
disciplinary experimentation. Contributions to this theme might be about
the Tavistock’s work then and now; methodological
threads running through the archive and their developments;
explorations of the origins of the Tavistock Institute and the Tavistock
tradition; inter and intra generational conversations.
THEN: Transacting with the Future
This
theme is about ongoing practice; what we give forward and who we will
be working with. This means contributions that consider the future or
‘what then?’; it could mean working with and
innovating methodologies such as search conferences; considering the
role of young people at work and in co-creating our future. Sub themes
in ‘Then’ are interactions with neuroscience in understanding groups and
society; stepping out of the past; envisaging
the future; new organisational forms and work design.
All
themes can be explored in the context of the archival material and/or
the Tavistock Institute’s spirit of applied theories; if we can’t answer
the questions ‘what then?’ (or ‘so what?’)
we are not interested!
We
are interested in receiving proposals in relation to the themes above
and the overall theme of the festival. Your proposals can be for
workshops; participatory sessions; talks; performances;
poetry readings; art works and other interventions. They can include a
virtual or a physical dimension.
Deadlines for submissions: Wednesday 3rd May 2017.