Holding the Turbulent World at Work

The abstracts could be in the area of:

• What do we mean by turbulence

• The changing nature of work and organisations, what do we mean by work

• The virtual nature of work infiltrating life at home

• How the international political dynamics of war and government’s turbulence affect work

• Working with a diverse workplace in turbulent political times

• The effects on work of generative artificial intelligence

• Are current practices (resilience, psychological safety, etc) supporting organisational attempts to create holding environments or are they defenses against turbulent anxiety

• Innovative organisational interventions that are occurring

• New creative ways to hold/contain

• What emotional turbulent anxieties need holding

• The emotional labour of relationships

• Theoretical and/or applied thinking

The criteria for paper selection includes:

• Relationship to the theme

• Systems psychodynamic / socioanalytic content

• Originality of thought

• Reference to organisations and organisation dynamics

• Clarity of thought

• Scholarly orientation

• Abstracts: Submit an abstract of up to 500 words outlining your proposed paper. Please note this word count does not include references.

• Presentation: Paper presentations are 30 minutes long, followed by 20 minutes of small group discussions and reflection and 20 minutes of whole group discussion.

• Full Papers: Upon acceptance of abstracts, full papers should be between 4,000-5,000 words, including references.

• References: Submissions should follow Harvard style for citations and references.

• Presenters are provided with a moderator and technical support in the preparation and during the presentation.

• A photograph and short biography are to be included.

• Sessions may be recorded.

• Attendees of the Symposium will be able to apply for continuing education (CE) credits.

• Abstract submissions 3 June 2026

• Notification of acceptance 22 June 2026

• Advice of moderator 6 August 2026

• Symposium 24 - 27 September 2026

For any inquiries regarding the symposium or submission process, please contact us at [email protected]

The organising committee for this joint NIODA ISPSO symposium consists of Professors Susan Long and Aaron Nurick (Co-Chairs), Thomas Mitchell (Deputy Chair), Sally Mussared and Belinda Cashel.