Title 'Changing Conversations in the Process of Transformational Change: European Quality Movement 1998 – 2004 Bridget McAdam-O'Connell Senior Demonstrator / Lecturer Department of Sociology National University of Ireland Cork Republic of Ireland Phone: +353-21-4902900 E-mail: bmcaoc@ucc.ie
Abstract As we move from late 20th Century into the formative years of the 21 st Century we are faced with the ambivalence of societal success also being societal failure. We are faced with a dilemma; our pursuance of wealth production has resulted in increased risk production, which is no longer contained and is of a global scale. How can we reduce the risk producing effects of industrial and technological capitalism and still retain the benefits of our western culture Taking a constructivist approach, which begins with the premise that all reality is socially constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed through action across time, and using the tools of Discourse and Frame analysis this presentation will outline the development of 'quality' discourse, language, concepts, ideas and practices emerging from the European Quality Movement1 . This paper emerges out of a larger research project on 'Risk, Responsibility and Choice: Reflexive Learning, Participative Democracy and the Process of Societal Transformation and Change' This paper and the conference presentation present a part of that project which focuses on the learning and transformational potential of 'quality initiatives' and workplace practices which are being implemented and becoming institutionalised within reflexive learning organisations. This research on the European Quality Movement generates important data; the paper focuses on the theoretical and methodological underpinning of the research while the conference PowerPoint presentation focuses on preliminary empirical findings. The data on Quality was generated through attendance at and engagement with Quality Conference presentations, literature, and discussions. In addition the data draws on the conversation and activities of the Breakthrough Summer Camps2 over a 6-year period spanning the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century (1998 to 2004). The presentation will examine competing frames within the European Quality Movement through looking at the 'stories' conveyed in the conference presentations and the 'conversations' of the 'Vision for Quality' breakthrough summer camps. The paper examines the extent to which the changing conversations in organisations constitute a new discourse, an emerging sustainability and responsibility frame with the potential to challenge the bureaucratic legislative and regulatory frame of the industrial technological epoch. Are we, in Europe, participating in the construction of a new reality, creating the potential structuring frames of a new reflexive modernity 3 , of a new historical epoch Do the concepts of 'Sharing Success', 'Winning together' and 'Valuing Diversity', which constitute elements of the 'Vision for Quality' frame and which inform the responsibility and sustainability frames, have the potential to structure our thinking and actions into the future The word 'potential' is used here advisedly; the theoretical and methodological research tools of a discourse and frame analysis make visible the process of transformation and change but do not claim to predict outcomes. As ideological frames compete for resonance4 in relation to cultural values they engage in frame alignment and frame appropriation. What emerges as a dominant regulating and structuring macro or master frame is generally made up of elements of all the competing

下一页