After Method in Organization Studies

From the call:

It’s a messy world, as John Law pointed out in his “After method”. So how can and should organization studies-scholars approach organizations if these are to be viewed as fluid and constantly enacted rather than as fixed and solid entities? How are we to face the challenge of studying and accounting for the fluidity and stability of the phenomena we study without falling back into essentialising categories that exist only when enacted? And how may questions of performativity and relationality be embraced in full when doing, analyzing and writing up empirical studies?

The questions are pressing, not only because present theories to world problems do not seem to lead to solutions that meet the needs of sustainability in all its various forms, but because taking fluidity seriously will open for different kinds of politics than the one based on entititative views. Hence, we, the researchers, need to take a reflective stance towards the methodologies we use to say something about the world we study in order to lead the discussion on what should be studied, why and how.

In order to explore the methodological challenges and opportunities that follow process ontology, i.e the view that organizations as well as the rest of the social world is fundamentally processual, we invite you who are active researcher within organization studies to join us for a full-day seminar: “After Method in Organization Studies”.

The seminar, co-funded by the Management, Organization and Society-department at Stockholm University and Scancor (Stanford University) will take place at Stockholm University School of Business, Monday October 21st and will include lectures that will provide an interdisciplinary perspective on methodological questions in relation to process ontology, as well as a panel discussion. At the end of the day there will be time to socialize over drinks and snacks.