Papers: Abstract submission deadline April 30th, 2007
Workshops: Proposal submission deadline May 18th, 2007
Artifacts: submission deadline July 20th, 2007

EPIC2007 is all about “Being Heard”. From privileged teenagers to vast populations of oppressed peoples, the last decade has seen a tremendous growth in the promise, and often actuality, of the ability to give voice to oneself, one’s people, one’s issues and one’s ideas. “You” may be Time’s Person of the Year, the “long tail” may be wagging the “You Tube”, “My Space” may be more your space. This year’s theme explores what it means to have voice, to represent, to be represented, to express, to be heard.  It explores the ways this happens and what happens when it doesn’t. It also asks after the absence of voice and representation, and all the grey space in between.

“Being Heard” is a timely concern to the profession; from a decade ago when a few ethnographers were scattered, struggling on their own, or joined with a handful of others here and there in the bowels of a couple of large corporations, ethnographers are now being heard everywhere - in fields as diverse as finance, advertising, technology, health care, education and so on. We play roles ranging from designer to marketer to new product developer to organizational change agent to researcher to administrator. But despite all the roles we play, we must ask, are we seen but not heard? What does it mean to succeed at being heard? And what responsibilities come with being heard?

It is not only ethnographers but the stakeholders and participants of our studies whose ways of being heard are changing.  From studies of organizational dynamics where findings and recommendations may be disputed and resisted by management, to design studies where participants are, or are hoped to be, intimately linked in the process from the beginning to end of the research, the participants are being heard.

EPIC aims to promote the integration of social and cultural perspectives, theories and method into business practice.  We invite submissions that probe on the many aspects of “being heard”, from how to design for giving voice to the politics and ethics of representation, from strategies for effective ethnographic engagements to the exploration of social and cultural manifestations of expression and representation.

We want you to be heard.  Come show your stuff – submit your paper, workshop or artifacts now!