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- Convenor:
-
Mira Karjalainen
(University of Helsinki)
Send message to Convenor
- Chair:
-
Mira Karjalainen
(University of Helsinki)
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- Eta room
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 5 September, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Vilnius
Short Abstract:
This panel brings together scholars studying people and their work while drawing on insights from the study of religion. The aim is to map what it is that scholars of religion contribute to debates on meaningful work, and how to best promote the value of these perspectives to other disciplines.
Long Abstract:
The increased scholarly attention toward meaningful work has stimulated fields such as organizational studies and management studies to engage with more existential questions on human purpose, and how people find meaning in work. Increasingly, organizational studies scholars explore how people make sense through their work; how people relate their profession to their larger purpose in life; and how people seek to integrate spirituality into their everyday work. This shifting focus has given way to a renewed interest in research topics such as organizational sensemaking and meaningful work.
Furthermore, workplace spirituality is gaining scholarly interest as organizations increasingly name authenticity and wellbeing as key personnel values and embark on launching policies and programs to facilitate these interests. These organizational practices – such as meditation, yoga, and mindfulness – have been linked to forms of “new age” or spiritual managerial trends. The humanistic and therapeutic approaches to management have been criticized, often termed “soft capitalism”, and linked to the ideological complexities of capitalism’s “new spirit”.
This panel explores the various ways scholars of religion contribute to these developing fields of research. Scholars of religion are rather well-equipped to contribute to these debates about the more existential questions of work, and the emerging trends on spirituality in organizations. Many scholars of religion are already exploring the entanglements of work and people’s broader questions of purpose, though their research findings are only rarely introduced to discussions in disciplinary fields such as management or organizational studies.
This panel brings together scholars researching people and their work while drawing on insights from the study of religion. The point in doing so is to systematically map what it is that the scholars of religion can contribute to the debates on meaningful work, and how to best promote the value of these perspectives to other disciplines.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 5 September, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
This paper argues scholars of religion can contribute to the developing fields of WPS and ‘meaningful work’ and promote the value of sociological analysis of religion to these fields through anthropological, comparative analysis of the intersection between “work” and metaphysical belief.
Paper long abstract:
Since the early 1990s the intersection between “work” and metaphysical belief has become a growing area of research for organisational scholars. Whilst some call for engagement with classical and contemporary sociological analysis of religion (Bell & Taylor, 2003; Case & Gosling, 2010; Gotsis & Kortezi, 2007), this is seldom answered. Its neglect is significant, however, for it leads much Workplace Spirituality (WPS) and ‘meaningful work’ scholarship to adopt quantitative, techno-calculative approaches that treats metaphysical belief as an instrument to harness greater efficiency, productivity, and profit (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010; Tracey, 2012).
This paper reviews mainstream WPS and meaningful literature, alongside its critical counterpart, to argue that Management and Organisation Studies (MOS) scholarship concerned with metaphysical belief remains reliant on ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions that reflect secular reason and scientific thinking. This leads to an examination of metaphysical belief that does not reflect contemporary manifestations in pluralistic societies, which is exacerbated by a lack of qualitative research. Utilising methodological agnosticism to analyse qualitative in-depth interviews with those who self-identify as religious, spiritual, agnostic and atheist, this paper reveals the rich complexities and subtle nuances of contemporary metaphysical belief and “work” that are obscured by ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions that reflect secular reason and scientific thinking. In particular, it demonstrates the significant role belief plays to the way in which employees respond to organisational attempts to spiritualise work. In doing so, it argues how the “spiritual turn” of work is not simply a capitalism of spirituality that secures competitive market advantage through the pacification of employees. For some, it is a process that is willingly co-constituted through compliant resistance out of self-preservation. For others, it is not a capitalism of spirituality at all, but a spiritualisation of capitalism by those who have faith in the economic cosmos.
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on semi-structured interviews, this paper analyses how class status shapes the wellbeing of working-class clergy in the culturally elite Church of England by employing Bourdieusian lenses of social and cultural capital. In doing so, it identifies how classism can be resisted in the Church.
Paper long abstract:
The intersection of power and work within institutional Christianity has received much academic discussion, particularly regarding the Church of England (CofE). Such research has focused on the historical and ongoing gender inequality in a religious organisation that does not permit women to hold ordained offices on the same terms as men, even though women may now enter the highest-ranking offices within the Church’s ordained hierarchy. Much research has been written concerning the impact that this has on women clergy in a context where professional, religious and other forms of identities intersect. Very recently, research has begun to explore how ethnic identities come to shape experiences of wellbeing for CofE clergy as well as experiences of disability amongst ordained ministers.
However, there has been a dearth of research on how working-class status comes to shape experiences of wellbeing for clergy. This is despite the fact that they are operating in an institution that is predominantly privileged, with many clergy coming from middle-class backgrounds, having a private and/or Oxbridge education, and being entwined with British political structures, such as the Houses of Parliament. Indeed, work on social and cultural capital within the Bourdieusian tradition indicate that working-class clergy are likely to be marginalised by being denied access to certain forms of capital.
Based on semistructured interviews, this paper draws out and amplifies the voices of working-class clergy, calling attention to the change required in Church structures and culture for classism to be resisted. It focuses on the resources for wellbeing available to working-class clergy via social and cultural capital, whilst challenging the neoliberal notion that resilience results primarily from selfcare. It asks how the emotional labour of managing mismatched cultural and social capital in such a public arena impacts on the sense of belonging and thriving of working-class clergy.
Paper short abstract:
In a transformative era, youth face mental health struggles. Our research explores links between radicalisation and mental health, highlighting the quest for existential meaning and purpose.
Paper long abstract:
We are going through one of the most pivotal moments in history where transformation is happening on all levels. Whilst our technologies allow for more forms of communication, youth still feel alone and unheard. Polarisation, marginalisation and alienation are growing in society with our most vulnerable in society, which in turn becomes a breeding ground for mental health issues. Yet there are no simple explanations or solutions.
Mental health has shown to be a major crisis amongst our younger generations. Living in a wealthy country is no guarantee for mental well-being. Youth are having to take matters into their own hands. Some are activists working towards global solidarity like Greta Thunberg and others are manifesting toxic behaviour through radicalisation. Both are part of the same continuum, expressing fear, fury and despair, refusing to adapt to the prevailing society, perhaps in search of authenticity?
Our research tried to fill in the gap by looking at youths’ perspectives contributing to radicalisation of an individual or a group. What our research shows is that when youth talk about mental health issues, they raise the need for meaning and purpose.
The findings derive from a broader research project funded by the Academy of Finland, "Growing up Radical? - The role of educational institutions in guiding young people's worldview construction” (2018-2023), based at the University of Helsinki, University of Oxford, Stockholm University and Åbo Akademi. (N=1675) derives from the Finnish national matriculation examination, where the students responded into a question related to the factors behind radicalisation. This led us further to the question of mental health and existential questions that youth may need to ask or discuss, preparing them with the spiritual capital, preparing them for life.
Paper short abstract:
The paper asks what happens when well-being and spirituality movement practices are implemented in the organizational life. It scrutinizes spiritual labor – a type of work-boundary blurring – through qualitative analysis of questionnaires by using theories of work boundaries and spiritual labor.
Paper long abstract:
This paper contributes to the broader question what happens when well-being and spirituality movement practices are implemented in the organizational life (cf. Bell and Taylor, 2003; Cederström and Spicer, 2015; Davies, 2015; Zaidman et al., 2009). As workplace spirituality is becoming more accepted and celebrated in workplaces, it draws attention from management and human resources that aim to use it for organizational purposes. Mental and spiritual practices and “workplace enchantment”, may be endorsed in order to enhance, for example, creativity and a sense of authenticity (Bell 2008; Endrissat et al. 2015; Ogden 2016; Suddaby et al. 2017), or resilience and commitment.
The data for this study has been collected in a business organization forced to push its employees to work remotely due to the pandemic, in spring 2020. The policies on remote work came and went, but the employees tented to stay working remote even after the organization was trying to coax them back to office. The data was collected during three consecutive autumns (2020, 2021 and 2022) through surveys with open-ended questions, followed by qualitative content analysis through which several themes were identified.
The company started online mindfulness classes during the remote work period. Already before that, the workers used various techniques of mind to be able to cope with work and other pressures of life. This paper looks at how these practices evolved and how the use of these techniques developed during the prolonged remote work period.
The theoretical framework consists of the work boundary theories of organizational studies, discussions on post-secularization and the theory of spiritual labour (Karjalainen 2022). As blurring work boundaries, constant negotiations, and insecurities related to them are typical for knowledge professionals, the organization in question proved a fruitful ground for practices on workplace spirituality.
Paper short abstract:
The research project Learning from new religion and spirituality came across several interesting dynamics between religion and work life. We argue that the relationship between religion/spirituality and contemporary work life can be complex in a relatively secular society such as Finland.
Paper long abstract:
The research project Learning from new religion and spirituality (Academy of Finland 325148) came across several interesting dynamics between religion and work life. Through applying some central concepts and theories from the research on adult learning, the ethnographically oriented project was implemented through case studies that sought to understand what, how and why adult residents in Finland engaged with what were for them in some ways new religious or spiritual practices. The studied practices included mindfulness, Tibetan sound healing, Ramadan and Orthodox catechumen courses as well as diverse mind-body practices. The presentation will look at some of the ways in which religion/spirituality and work life were connected or dis-connected in the interviews. Our interlocutors reported to us about their 1) difficulties to integrate religion/spirituality with work life, 2) studying religion for work life, 3) wishes to make work out of spirituality, and 4) more or less secret ways of integrating religion/spirituality with their secular work. On the basis of these observations, we argue that the relationship between religion/spirituality and contemporary work life can be manifold and complex in a relatively secular society such as Finland. We also suggest that the dynamics that we were able to observe and analyse shows a complex field of non-formal adult learning trajectories through which individuals may seek to attain such for them valuable skills and knowledges that are not usually offered by formal education.
Paper short abstract:
Early Christian monastic writings on acedia and modern research on the value of play in games studies both address similar problems of boredom and listlessness. This connection is made cloudy with the rise of gamification, but by looking back at the monastic tradition, we may find a new perspective.
Paper long abstract:
Religion is not just a topic that some games engage with, but the cultures of play the have arisen with gaming communities in recent decades have echoes of devotional practice within them. Early Christian monasticism and modern playful attitudes share a similar target in acedia, often translated as "listlessness." Looking at the writings of Evagrius Ponticus and John Cassian, we get a clear picture of why acedia was such a cause for alarm in early Christian devotional practice, only to have it return in the 20th Century in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Aldous Huxley. The connection between religious studies and games studies goes deep within the canon as Johan Huizinga, Roger Caillois, and James P. Carse all studied religion as well as games, but new developments in our relationships with games and play are cause for us to reaffirm these unlikely origins. In our world of ever-increasing stimulation, it's hard to imagine that terms like acedia or "ennui" would get a foothold, let alone the rise of depression and other diseases of apathy. Games, in the writings of people like Carse or Jane McGonigal, offer positive visions of play's potential to remedy these conditions but this position is complicated by gamification. Turning everything into a game shifts from a utopian notion of liberation from boredom and drudgery to one of constant quantification, competition, and production. Is this a problem brought on solely by advances in technology, or do video games and virtual worlds offer an even cleaner cure for acedia? Perhaps by returning to the approaches for addressing acedia historically, we can meet the new challenges brought upon us by technology, gamification, and the game market and recapture the free spirit of play.