Sophie Del Fa | Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (original) (raw)

Papers by Sophie Del Fa

Nouvelles pratiques sociales

Communication et organisation

Management, 2020

This paper offers a Derridean framework for reflecting on what "being alternative" means, and, mo... more This paper offers a Derridean framework for reflecting on what "being alternative" means, and, more precisely, how it operates. Asking the question, What are the processes through which an organization is constituted as an alternative?, we examine the communicative practices of differentiation in a particular organizational setting. We use empirical material taken from the case study of UPop, an alternative university in Montreal, Canada. Our study shows that "the alternative" is constituted through movements of differentiation, which oscillate between being against and not being like.

Tamara: Journal for critical organization inquiry, 2017

Keywords Abstract Alternative universities Alternative organizations Constitutive approach of com... more Keywords Abstract Alternative universities Alternative organizations Constitutive approach of communication Tarde This paper proposes a communicative and constitutive theoretical framework to explore the embodiment of the alternative in an alternative university. It responds to a call to deepen the approaches of alternative organizations and to apply the constitutive approach of communication to organizational phenomena. Through the close study of ongoing communicational practices, this paper aims to explore how a communicational approach and Tarde's three rules of repetition, opposition and adaptation could disclose what it means to be alternative on a daily basis. By undertaking an organizational ethnography of an alternative college in the United States, this paper explores how the alternative is embodied.

Alternate routes: a journal for critical social research, 2017

The authors of The Radical Imagination make a promise: to do research on social movements differe... more The authors of The Radical Imagination make a promise: to do research on social movements differently. The book is a presentation of " The Radical Imagination Project " which was initiated in 2010 by Max Haiven and Alex Khasnabish " to study, analyze, foment, broadcast and promote the radical ideas that emerge from social movements " 2 , in Halifax, Canada. To go beyond mere academic ethnographic research, the authors organized, in collaboration with the activist groups they were studying, film sessions, public talks and workshops. They also created a website that provides a wealth of information about the activities held during the project. The Radical Imagination Project's main goal was to explore the " radical imagination " (hereafter RI) that moved activists. It must be understood as a driving force in the dynamics of the present political moment. The uniqueness of Haiven and Khasnabish's definition is that they view the RI as a collective process emerging from the activities of the people involved in social movements. For them, activists perform RI; and, in return, RI drives them. It is an aspirational term that encompasses the ability to imagine the world, life and social institutions as they might be. In other words, it is the ability to think how things could be different through narrating where we come from, where we are now, and where we are going. This definition is built upon a theorization of the RI by Castoriadis and Stoezler and Yuval-Davis. Following these thinkers, the RI is " a volcanic substance " that is " constantly in motion under the surface of society " (p.6). It is also " shaped by our experience as embodied subjects " (p.7). Motivated with the will to understand how the RI works, the authors start with three observations: 1) social movements are convocations of the RI: members share a specific view of the world in a radical sense. As social movements are very diverse, the RI is the only aspect that social movements share in common; 2) social movements are animated by the movement of the RI; although all members do not share the same imaginary landscapes, the social movements are driven by tensions, conflicts and dialogues that animate these various " imaginative actors " ; and, 3) the researchers seek to " convoke " the RI. Rather than merely observing it, the researchers assume that their research and their writing are intimate parts of the way social movements reproduce themselves (p.8). 1 Sophie Del Fa is a PhD student in communication at University of Quebec in Montréal. Her research focuses on alternative organizations. She is particularly interested in alternative universities which is the subject of her thesis. She tries to understand what it is to be " different " in higher education. Her interests lie also in critical approaches of communication and in organizational ethnography. Email: del_fa.sophie@uqam.ca 2 http://radicalimagination.org/

L’article propose d’explorer le bénévolat à travers les attachements et les détachements des béné... more L’article propose d’explorer le bénévolat à travers les attachements et les détachements des bénévoles à une cause et à un projet de manière générale. Nous analyserons cette dynamique en mobilisant une approche constitutive de la communication organisationnelle (CCO) afin de comprendre ce qui lie, mais aussi ce qui délie les différents acteurs participant à un projet de bénévolat. L’analyse révèle plusieurs sources d’attachements et de détachements qui amènent les bénévoles à s’investir à différents degrés, voire même à quitter le projet. De plus, nous explorons en quoi certains liens (tels que la cause, le quartier et la socialisation des bénévoles) transforment la définition et le mode d’existence du projet de bénévolat et en font sa force (et sa faiblesse). En ce sens, notre étude se concentre sur les liens qui attachent et détachent, et ce faisant font tenir un projet de bénévolat au fil des passions qui meuvent les participants.

L’article repose sur une étude ethnographique menée en collaboration avec la Société canadienne d... more L’article repose sur une étude ethnographique menée en collaboration avec la Société canadienne du cancer sur l’un de ses programmes de prévention, le réseau d’autobus pédestres nommé Trottibus. À partir d’une réflexion portant sur l’organisation bénévole qui s’inscrit dans une approche constitutive de la communication organisationnelle, nous montrons les effets du mouvement de ce projet de bénévolat sur le plan social en questionnant comment, en tant que mode particulier d’organisation, celui-ci déplace les frontières dans un quartier. Pour ce faire, nous explorons empiriquement : (1) comment le Trottibus permet de traverser les frontières entre les générations par le renforcement des liens bénévoles-enfants par la nature même de l’activité qu’il promeut : le transport actif ; (2) en quoi ce mouvement à travers les frontières favorise le sentiment d’appartenance au quartier et génère l’autonomie des enfants dans leur réappropriation de l’espace urbain ; et, par conséquent, (3) dans quelle(s) mesure(s) le Trottibus floute les frontières de l’École par son déplacement de l’extérieur vers l’intérieur (et vice versa). De l’intégration de ce projet bénévole dans une collectivité scolaire, nous concluons sur le renouvellement du rôle de l’École en tant qu’espace rassembleur et générateur d’une vie communautaire.

This article proposes the analysis of three speeches pronounced by the UQAM’s chancellor in order... more This article proposes the analysis of three speeches pronounced by the UQAM’s chancellor in
order to understand the values that are cultivated and the tensions that characterize the university.
Using various analytical methods (narrative, critical and ventriloquism), anchored in a
constitutive approach of communication (CCO), we examine how the chancellor defines his
university, which is facing an unfavourable economical context. The analysis shows how, in
those speeches, the chancellor cultivates the ideas of academic freedom and university autonomy
vis-à-vis marketization, using the principle of democracy as a basic value. This article proposes
an innovative discursive approach to study higher education institutions. Its main contributions
are, first, to demonstrate the relevance of a constitutive approach of communication for
discourses analysis and, second, to show the complementariness between three distinct analytical
methods.

Stemming from new media and social consumption practices, the short film has gradually become a n... more Stemming from new media and social consumption practices, the
short film has gradually become a new Web advertising tool. From a semioticpragmatic
point of view, we propose different conceptual frameworks to
analyze and understand this new type of advertising films, produced by luxury
brands and broadcasted only online. This is a first step in understanding and
theorizing those cultural products, which should serve as a foundation for future
research. The article is built around the definition of three communication
spaces that have allowed the emergence of advertising shorts films. We offer an
inclusive reading of the phenomenon, taking into account the general context of
production as well as the short film itself, seen as a meaningful production.

Conferences by Sophie Del Fa

This preconference will be an occasion for students, scholars and members of social movements, al... more This preconference will be an occasion for students, scholars and members of social movements, alternative organizations and resistance at large to share both studies and practices of collective resistance, such as feminist/racial/sexual (Ashcraft, 2004; Davis, 2015, 2018; Gittens, 2018), social movements (Ganesh & Stohl, 2014; Ganesh et al., 2005; Ganesh & Zoller, 2012), alternative organizations (Cruz, 2017), or postcolonalism and nonwestern epistemology (Cruz, 2017; Cruz, McDonal, Broadfoot, Kai-chun, & Ganesh, 2018). But also, it will be an invitation to discuss the role of academics in “crossing the boundaries” of neoliberal normativity in order to put forth a more “engaged” community.

Please submit a 500-800 words abstract (excluding references, one page, word document –NOT PDF–), single-spaced, no header, footers or track changes) together with your contact information to Sophie Del Fa: del_fa.sophie@uqam.ca.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is February 1st, and we will notify our decisions by the end of February. Selected participants will have to submit an extended abstract or full paper by May 1st.

Sophie Del Fa, University of Quebec in Montreal
Joëlle Cruz, University of Colorado, Boulder
Consuelo Vásquez, University of Quebec in Montreal

Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias sociales (CLACSO) - Buenos Aires, 2018