11056: The 1.3 Billion People Question: How Disability Extends What We Know About Social Symbolic Work?

Saturday, July 26, 2025

15:00 - 17:00 CEST (GMT+2)

Location: Bella Center: Hall C- C4-m3

Session Type: PDW (workshop)
Orientation: International,Research,Diversity
Shareable link: https://cdmcd.co/vaAMYM

Organizer(s)

AZ

Anica Zeyen

Royal Holloway, U. of London, United Kingdom
OB

Oana Branzei

Ivey Business School, CANADA

Speaker(s)

OB

Oana Branzei

Ivey Business School, CANADA
AZ

Anica Zeyen

Royal Holloway, U. of London, United Kingdom
RA

Robert D. Austin

Ivey School of Business, Canada
WH

Wesley Helms

Brock U., Canada
MR

Maija Renko

Aalto University, United States
JP

Jeff Preston

Western University, Canada

Facilitator(s)

NB

Neva Bojovic

KEDGE Business School, France
WD

Walker Ray Dornisch

Royal Holloway - University of London, United States
GK

Gihyun (G.) Kim

Bryant University, United States
DV

Dusya Vera

Western University, Canada
RL

Ren Lovegood

UMass Boston College of Management, United States
RL

Rachel Le Marois

emlyon Business School, France
SM

Snigdha Malhotra

Fortune Institute of International Business, India
SR

Subhasis Ray

Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar, India
BS

Brooks Szucs

The University of Queensland
TK

Tavleen Kaur

Fortune Institute of International Business

Participant(s)

FC

Farzana Chowdhury

Durham U. Business School, United Kingdom
PH

Paul Harpur

The University of Queensland
KP

Kelley Packalen

-, Canada
MM

Mark E. Moore

-, United States
ZT

Zoe Troxell Whitman

Columbia U. Teacher's College, United States
ET

Edward Timke

Michigan State University, United States
SA

Sreejith Alathur

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode
SD

Samantha Deane

Rutgers, United States
SH

Seonyoung Hwang

Aalto U. School of Business, Finland
CD

Caroline Julie Demeyere

Copenhagen Business School, Belgium
SS

Siddhartha Satish Saxena

Heriot Watt U., India
ZA

Zein Al Maha Oweis

University of Glasgow
SP

Stavros Polykarpou

-, United Kingdom
DL

Dan Lococo

-
KK

Kannu Priya Kamboj

-, India
LL

Lara Liboni

Ivey Business School, Canada

Globally, 1.3 billion people are disabled. Despite advancements in regulations, disabled individuals continue to face high levels of discrimination due to ableist structures. Our PDW aims to extend existing work on social-symbolic work by incorporating insights from a disability context. Social-symbolic work involves purposeful, reflexive efforts to shape or maintain social symbolic objects in organizations. Until very recently, this lens has only been applied to non-disabled workers. Our 2025 Routledge Companion introduced forms of social-symbolic work by which disabled workers deliberately challenge and change existing systems. The PDW will feature six lightning talks by leading global experts on novel discursive aspects (representation and influence), relational dimensions (stigma and neurodivergence), and mindbodied cycles (accommodation and suffering/thriving at work) unique to disability work. Roundtable discussions on each of these 6 topics will invite participants to dialogue and network with disability work scholars so we can collaboratively map new questions, connections and contributions that acknowledge the diversity of minds and bodies as subjects rather than objects of social symbolic work. The session will conclude with a plenary discussion to identify research gaps and outline a research agenda for the future of social symbolic work in disability contexts.