“I often experience feminism as energy, the energy of making feminist connections can be how we survive being depleted by doing feminist work.” (Sara Ahmed, 2013)
VIDA is the Critical Management Studies Women’s Association, formed in 2009. This manifesta offers an overview of who we are, what we aim to do, how we work, the values we stand for and the activities we are currently involved in. Manifesta is a feminine Italian adjective meaning ‘apparent’, ‘obvious’ or ‘evident’. We use it as an alternative to ‘manifesto’. ‘Manifesto’ has the same etymological roots as manifesta– the Latin manifestum, which translates into English as ‘clear’, ‘explicit’ or ‘public’ – but it is masculine.
VIDA is a feminist, anti-racist, anti-ageist, anti-classist, anti-ableist, anti-colonial, anti-heteronormative organization. We stand for equity, democracy, support, friendship, collectivism, challenge, resistance and intervention. We emphasize democratic values, solidarity and support in all of our activities. We focus on reflexivity and on developing structures that stress the need for action, accountability and change.
There has been a long tradition of activism and critical scholarship both outside and inside CMS and management and organization studies more generally. Inside the academy, there are many different forms which this work takes: book series, conference streams, special issues, equality work on University committees, mentoring programmes and so on. We therefore have a rich and significant history – and present – to draw on, and we see ourselves as very much part of this.
Specifically though the tenor of academic writing and debate in Critical Management Studies – the tendency to machismo, incredulity, one-upmanship and acidity, as well as the continuing reliance on what one brand of feminism calls the Dead White European Men – can be regarded as a particular challenge for CMS scholars who do not identify as white, heterosexual, Anglophone, middle class, able-bodied cismen. So can the low numbers of senior role models who do not identify as such in academic institutions of all kinds. Equally, those who don’t identify as cismen, white, heterosexual, Anglophone, middle class and/ or able-bodied, and who are fortunate enough to find sympathetic cismen mentors may end up on the receiving end of a variety of sexist judgements about their relationships with these men.
And all of this is made yet more complicated and yet more persistent by the ways in which we just as much as white, heterosexual, Anglophone, middle class, able-bodied cismen enrol in the discourses which produce and reproduce these problematic effects. It is also important to acknowledge not only the “monotonous similarity” of academic gender relations, but also their “endless variety” (Rubin, 1975: 160) – cut across as they are by race, ethnicity, age, (dis)ability, sexuality, national origin and a whole host of other differences. We need to challenge the complexity of power relations in the critical management academy and its cognate disciplines.
As CMS scholars we often fall prey to the prejudices associated with our non-cismen genders, as well as our identifications as non-white, non-heterosexual, non-Anglophone, working class, disabled and so on. We are more easily the targets of bullying and sexual harassment, are oftentimes swamped with large administrative and teaching loads and are rarely naturally included in formal but more especially informal decision-making fora. The resulting isolation is perhaps particularly difficult because we are engaged in critical management work, as we can be seen to ‘rock the boat’ more than most. We feel that we often occupy a place of ‘double Otherness’ in terms of our relationship to mainstream management studies as well as to the Centre of academia. Without necessarily attempting to define and clarify our Otherness – or indeed the differences that exist between us as a group of CMS scholars – we want to challenge in a very real and material way the ‘automatisms’ of academic work that reproduce existing processes and ways of being.
We are therefore a networked organisation dedicated to challenging patriarchal, racist, heteronormative, ableist, classist, colonialist and ageist practices in academic institutions and in the (re)production of knowledgetout court. We aim to change the ways in which we and other Others, in the critical management academy as elsewhere, are silenced and marginalized. We are working together to challenge the exclusions, oppressions and discriminations which continue to exist in CMS, and the lack of reflexivity which contributes to their perpetuation. We exist to fight against all forms of inequality – including but not limited to sexism, racism, ableism, ageism, classism, heteronormativity and colonialism – and to change the uneven distribution of material and symbolic power. We want to make a difference inacademic practice: teaching, researching and managing in our organizations and beyond, in the global CMS community.
However, VIDA is not one thing, and we do not want it to be. In many ways the use of the collective pronoun ‘we’ is problematic in itself as it suggests that all of us believe the same things, have the same political commitments, work in similar institutions, identify in the same ways, use the same sorts of theories and concepts in our work and so on. Our we is therefore ‘we’: ‘we’ do not want to universalize the work that ‘we’ do through VIDA, nor to close down debates or internal conflicts within our network.
VIDA membership is restricted to those interested in CMS and who identify as anything other than cismen. All of our activities are open to all members, but there is no requirement for anyone to join in anything in particular – or anything at all. We are a work in progress and will continue to be, so we welcome all new ideas and proposals. Some of our work will also be temporary, whereby we come together to address specific issues for a short time. This manifesta itself is therefore also a work in progress.
VIDA has no hierarchy – no Board or ‘executive’ function at all. We want as far as possible to encourage all members to suggest events; offer to run events; share events, job vacancies, funding opportunities, publications and campaigns; ask questions or ask for advice; ask for comments on ongoing work (papers, funding applications, whatever); share work in progress/ finished work/ teaching resources; and responding to others’ requests and queries. Events can be one offs or serial, they can run anywhere at all (including virtually) and they can also involve one, several or many VIDA members. Everyone is welcome to use our name to ‘label’ the events they want to run.
We do not have any form of funding and are unable to provide any. We hope that, where possible, people will be able to draw on institutional pots of money or funding from places like the AoM CMS Division, SAMS or the International Social Research Foundation where needed.
Previously, we have run two professional development workshops at the Academy of Management conference and four critical friendship streams at the CMS conference, the Gender, Work and Organization conference and the UK and Ireland Feminist and Women’s Studies Association conference.
Our current activities include the following:
- The VIDA writing project – regular online ‘shut up and write’ sessions where members meet to focus on writing within a supportive space.
- Critical friendship workshops where we discuss pre-submitted papers in real time, constructively and compassionately. See more about these workshops at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/comment/opinion/constructive-criticism-without-the-machismo/2005317.article
- A critical friendship scheme extending beyond these events where we can reach out to each other and form pairs or larger groups to support each other with our papers, teaching and supervision, grant applications, career development, institutional pressures and so on.
- Collecting references to allow us to diversify our teaching syllabi and working towards much more diverse citation practices.
- A group to draw up a strategy challenging the changes to our working conditions in universities. Some key issues to consider include: the gender pay gap; casualization; promotion and development; harassment; mental health; and performance related pay.
- A number of streams coordinated at CMS2017, organized by teams which included no cismen.
- An event running just before CMS2017 on critical sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, classism, colonialism, transphobia and ableism.
- Developing ways to actively challenge the racialized, ableist, classed heteronormativity of CMS around publishing, promotion, recognition of what counts as academic work and so on.
- A meet up system for VIDA members attending conferences, especially where they don’t know other delegates already.
- A closed Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1727793390777869/(send us a join request).
- An anonymous blog at https://criticalmanagementVIDA.wordpress.com.
VIDA 