Category: Seminars

Applied microhistory: A workshop.

Steph

Applied microhistory: A workshop.

Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Tuesday, 15 March 2016.
9 am – 2 pm

As time puts things into perspective, the heated and sometimes misleading historiographical debates of the1970s and 1980s on micro-history and its focus on small subjects seem to fade away. Yet in the meantime historical micro-analysis has emerged as a useful method to approach a very diverse set of questions in different fields of social sciences and humanities.
Micro-analysis focuses on the reduction of scale as an instrument to answer theoretical general questions, maintaining a dynamic tension between ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ perspectives. In so doing, it offers a logical procedure to infer general considerations from specific cases, regardless of their statistical representativeness. At the same time, this approach implies a contingent view of the relationship between agency and structure, highlighting the creativity of the former and the complexity of the latter.
This workshop aims at discussing the contribution of micro-analytical historical approaches to research in different fields, from the most classical focus on local communities to the challenge of studying at micro level global connections and institutions, as well at the organizational level. Contributors are invited to address the
methodological issues implied in the use of a micro-analytical approach with reference to a diverse range of research fields.

Please send any enquiries to Giovanni Favero (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia) – gfavero@unive.it
Papers to be discussed (provisional titles):
Roser Cusso (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne), Micro-history and the IO: the case of LoN’s minorities section.
Stephanie Decker (Aston Business School), Mothership reconnection: Microhistory and institutional work compared.
Giovanni Favero (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Putting micro-history at work: Exception and norm, observation and experiment.
Per Hansen (Copenhagen Business School), A sense-making approach to the response of central banks to the Austrian finacial crisis of 1931.
Miki Sugiura (Hosei University), Maintaining polycentric cities under de-urbanization: Local merchants’ real estate strategies in Bolsward, Friesland.
Discussants:
Monica Martinat (Université Lumière Lyon 2), Simona Cerutti (EHESS Paris), Andrew Popp (University of Liverpool), Francesca Trivellato (Yale University)
References:
Decker, Stephanie (2015) Mothership reconnection: Microhistory and institutional work compared. In T.G Weatherbee, P.G. McLaren, & A.J. Mills (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Management and Organizational History (pp. 222-237). London: Routledge.
Fellman, Susanna & Rahikainen, Marjatta (Eds.) (2012) Historical Knowledge: In Quest of Theory, Method and Evidence. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Magnússon, Sigurour G. & Szijártó, Istvan M. (2013) What is Microhistory? Theory and Methods. London: Routledge.
Trivellato, Francesca (2011). Is there a future for Italian microhistory in the age of global history? California Italian Studies Journal, 2(1).

ESRC seminar 4

Steph

esrc-logoESRC Seminar Series: Historicising the theory and practice of organizational analysis

Seminar 4: Ethnography and Phenomenological Approaches

17 February 2016, Alliance Manchester Business School, Oxford Road, Manchester

Our next event in the ESRC seminar series will be hosted by Alliance Manchester Business School on Wednesday 17 February 2016. The programme is as follows:

0900-0930       Arrival and Refreshments
0930-0945       Welcome and Introduction
0945-1030       Alan McKinlay (Newcastle U): “Foucault and the archive”
1030-1115         Bill Cooke (York U): “The affect of the archive”
1115-1130         Coffee/Tea
1130-1215       Andrea Bernardi (Manchester Metropolitan U): “Auto-ethnography”
1215-1300       Andrea Whittle & John Wilson (Newcastle U): “History-in-action”
1300-1345       Buffet Lunch
1345-1430      Stephanie Decker (Aston U): “Archival ethnography”
1430-1515       Lucy Newton (Reading U): “Corporate identity”
1515-1530       Coffee/Tea
1530-1615       Daniel Mai (Consultant: Berlin): “Cultures of remembrance”
1615                Discussion and Closing Remarks

Registration: There are 25 free (ESRC-sponsored) places that will be allocated on a “first come first served” basis. A conference registration fee of £30.00 will be charged on additional places and this will include refreshments and buffet lunch.

Travel & accommodation: Expenses should be covered by participants (except speakers, whose travel and accommodation costs will be covered).

The workshop will be held in Alliance Manchester Business School, Booth Street West, Manchester M15 6PB. Alliance Manchester Business School is approximately 15 minutes walk from Manchester Oxford Road station. See University of Manchester website for details.

For further enquiries please contact the conference administrator (Nighat Din: nighat.din@mbs.ac.uk] or members of the organizing team: John Hassard (john.hassard@mbs.ac.uk) and Damian O’Doherty (damian.odoherty@mbs.ac.uk), both at Manchester Business School); Stephanie Decker (s.decker@aston.ac.uk) at Aston Business School; or Mick Rowlinson (m.rowlinson@qmul.ac.uk) at Queen Mary University London.

ESRC seminar 3: Narrative Construction of Memory

Dan

On December 10, 2015 CBS hosted the ESRC workshop on the Narrative Construction of Memory. The program and pictures are below.

Speakers

9.00 – 9.30 Welcome & Introduction

9.30 – 10.15 Tor Hernes, Copenhagen Business School: Temporal Trajectory and Organizational Narrative

10.15 – 11.00 Robin Holt, Copenhagen Business School: Memory and Mnemosyne

11.00 – 11.15 Coffee

11.15 – 12.00 Dan Wadhwani, University of the Pacific: Creating Histories without a Past: Uses of History in the Entrepreneurial Processes

12.00 – 13.00 Lunch

13.00 – 14.15 Ronald Kroeze, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: The Use of History and Narratives by Dutch Top Managers and Companies

14.15 – 14.30 Coffee

14.30 – 15.15 Roy Suddaby, University of Victoria: Rhetorical History and Narrative History

15.15 – 16.00 Per Hansen, Copenhagen Business School: Narratives as the Basis of Memory and History

16.00 – 16:30 Discussion & Conclusion

 

PDW on the Uses of the Past

Steph

Today the first of two joint seminars at CBS on organizational history took place, focusing on the forthcoming special issue in Organization Studies. While the presentations were very short, allowing authors to only present the gist of their ideas, this meant that the discussions about the papers were lively and further fleshed out what we mean by “Uses of the Past”. How do we differentiate the past from history, how does it relate to time and temporality, what type of histories are useful to organizations? The special issue editors also used to opportunity to highlight their aims and plans for handling papers going forward.

 

Program: Paper Development Workshop “Uses of the Past”, December 9, 2015 – CBS

9.00 – 9.15             Welcome & introduction

9.15 – 9.45             Karim Ben Slimane, Institut supérieur du commerce de
Paris & Tao Wang, Grenoble Ecole de Management: “Absinthe Reborn: Relegitimation of Deinstitutionalized Practices”, Commentator: Andrew Popp, University of Gothenburg

9.45 – 10.15          Marianne Bertelsen, Copenhagen Business School: “Uses of Time: Organizing the Messy Temporalities of Contemporary Art”, Commentator: Mads Mordhorst , Copenhagen Business School

10.15 – 10.35        Coffee

10.35 – 11.05        Ron Kerr, University of Edinburgh & Sarah Robinson, University of Leicester: “Confecting a Corporate History: Uses of the Past in the Digital Age – The Case of the Mondelez International Website”,       Commentator: Roy Suddaby, University of Victoria

11.05 – 11.35        Rebecca Kahn, King’s College: “The Career of the Catalogue: Exploring Uses of the Past in the Context of the British Museum’s Digitization Strategy”, Commentator: Andrew Popp, University of Gothenburg  

11.35 – 11.50     Michael Rowlinson, Queen Mary University of London Senior Editor for Organization Studies

11.50 – 12.45        Lunch

12.45 – 13.15        William Foster, University of Alberta: “Authentic Rhetorical History: The Enactment of Sincerity & Credibility”, Commentator: Dan Wadhwani, University of the Pacific

13.15 – 13.45        Innan Sasaki, University of Turku & Davide Ravasi, City University London: “Maintaining Commitments for Centuries in Multi-Centenary Shinise Firm in Kyoto”, Commentator: Dan Wadhwani, University of the Pacific

13.45 – 14.10        Coffee break

14.10 – 14.40        Ida Lunde Jorgensen, Copenhagen Business School: “Organised Emotions: Strategic and Institutional Uses of the Past by Family Philanthropic Foundations”, Commentator: Dan Wadhwani, University of the Pacific

14.40 – 15.10        Tracy Wilcox, UNSW Business School: “A Convenient Amnesia? Organised Forgetting and Narratives of Safety in Qantas”, Commentator: Roy Suddaby, University of Victoria

15.10 – 15.30        Coffee break

15.30 – 16.00        Tristan May, EMLYON Business School: “If 6 Was 9 – Rhetorical History and the Instrumentalization of Symbolic Guitar Heroes in the Crafting of Iconic Electric Guitars”, Commentator: Mads Mordhorst, Copenhagen Business School

16.00 – 16.30        Christina Lubinski, Copenhagen Business School: “Constructing the Aryan Firm – Uses of History and Historical Negotiations on Organizational and National Levels”, Commentator: Roy Suddaby, University of Victoria

16.30 – 17.00        Discussion & Conclusion

 

Seminar Program ‘The Narrative Construction of Memory’

Steph

Program for the ESRC Seminar ‘The Narrative Construction of Memory’

December 10, 2015 – Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

 9.00 – 9.30           Welcome & Introduction

9.30 – 10.15         Tor Hernes, CBS: “Temporal Trajectory and Organizational Narrative”

10.15 – 11.00       Robin Holt, CBS: “Memory and Mnemosyne”

11.00 – 11.15       Coffee

11.15 – 12.00       Dan Wadhwani, University of the Pacific: “Projecting Plausible Futures: Uses of Historical Narratives in the Entrepreneurial Process”

12.00 – 13.00       Lunch

13.00 – 14.15       Ronald Kroeze, Free University of Amsterdam: “The Use of History and Narratives by Dutch Top Managers and Companies”

14.15 – 14.30       Coffee

14.30 – 15.15       Roy Suddaby, University of Victoria: “Rhetorical History and Narrative History”

15.15 – 16.00       Per Hansen, CBS: “Narratives as the Basis of Memory and History”

16.00 – 16.15       Coffee

16.15 – 17.00       Discussion & Conclusion

For further information, please see the poster.

CfP: Applied microhistory: A workshop

Steph

Applied microhistory: A workshop.

 Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris

Tuesday, 15 March 2016.

As time puts things into perspective, the heated and sometimes misleading historiographical debates of the 1970s and 1980s on micro-history and its focus on small subjects seem to fade away. Yet in the meantime historical micro-analysis has emerged as a useful method to approach a very diverse set of questions in different fields of social sciences and humanities.

Micro-analysis focuses on the reduction of scale as an instrument to answer theoretical general questions, maintaining a dynamic tension between ‘emic’ and ‘etic’ perspectives. In so doing, it offers a logical procedure to infer general considerations from specific cases, regardless of their statistical representativeness. At the same time, this approach implies a contingent view of the relationship between agency and structure, highlighting the creativity of the former and the complexity of the latter.

This workshop aims at discussing the contribution of micro-analytical historical approaches to research in different fields, from the most classical focus on local communities to the challenge of studying at micro level global connections and institutions, as well at the organizational level. Contributors are invited to address the methodological issues implied in the use of a micro-analytical approach with reference to a diverse range of research fields.

Scholars interested in participating should send a title and short abstract of their proposed contribution by January 15 to Giovanni Favero (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia) – gfavero@unive.it

References:

Decker, Stephanie (2015) Mothership reconnection: Microhistory and institutional work compared. In T.G Weatherbee, P.G. McLaren, & A.J. Mills (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Management and Organizational History (pp. 222-237). London: Routledge. https://goo.gl/hBJD7A

Fellman, Susanna & Rahikainen, Marjatta (Eds.) (2012) Historical Knowledge: In Quest of Theory, Method and Evidence. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. http://goo.gl/znojt0

Magnússon, Sigurour G. & Szijártó, Istvan M. (2013) What is Microhistory? Theory and Methods. London: Routledge. https://goo.gl/G9yzYa

Trivellato, Francesca (2011). Is there a future for Italian microhistory in the age of global history? California Italian Studies Journal, 2(1). http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0z94n9hq

 

 

Making Markets: Histories of Commodity Grading and Trading

Dan

On Friday, Caitlin Rosenthal and Espen Storli hosted an interesting workshop on “Making Markets: Histories of Commodity Grading and Trading” at Berkeley. (The description and program can be found here: http://cstms.berkeley.edu/current-events/making-markets/) It seems to me that interest in “grading” and “standards” creation is on the rise at the moment in historical studies of organizations and markets; I can think of a number of historians working on the topic from different angles, including JoAnne Yates and Stephen Mihm.

Nostalgia Conference in London

Steph

By chance I came across the announcement for a conference at the German Historical Institute in London on the topic of “Nostalgia: Historicizing the Longing for the Past”. The influential historian David Lowenthal was one of the contributors, and one of the keynotes was delivered by the social psychologist Konstantin Sedikides, one of the leading nostalgia researchers in the field. Multi-disciplinary in nature, it was a fascinating two day event, which the GHIL has covered in a blog that recounts the different panels and discussion. If you are interested, see https://nost.hypotheses.org/. The website also includes a “reading list” of texts discussed at the event, which underscores how varied the academic research on nostalgia is.

“Unknown vistas in management and organization history” workshop at York

Steph

The Management and Organization History Cluster at the University of York (UK) are hosting a Winter School on Monday 7 December 2015.

“Unknown vistas in management and organization history: a workshop.”

Towards the unknown

The historic turn in Management and Organization Studies (MOS) inaugurated nearly twenty-five years ago appears to have legitimated theoretically sensitive historical studies in a range of management journals, and has seen widespread use of organization theory within business history.

While the philosophical debate about the role of theory narrative, and memory related to method in historical work in MOS will surely continue, we have decided to turn our attention to new vistas, to continue the disciplinary voyage and to ask, simply, what’s next?

The purpose of this Winter School is therefore to identify, outline and discuss the unknowns (both known and unknown) in the field of management and organization history, broadly conceived.

What are the areas and topics about which we are ignorant? Why are they unknown? How might we know them? What new methods and disciplinary collaborations might be required to develop new knowledge? Where will the great disciplinary challenges lie in the coming years? And how shall we address them?

The workshop will be conducted via informal roundtable discussions. Contributions might include (but are not limited to) consideration of historiography, methodology, temporality, historicity, theory, sources, archives, argument(s) and interpretation(s), myths, paradigms, problems, puzzles, inter-disciplinarity, new empirical topics, public history and policy, history and the ‘business humanities’, or any topic which has the potential to open an unknown vista.

We intend that the workshop will lead to an edited volume consisting of short discursive chapters that continue and develop the workshop discussions.

For further information please see the website for the Management and Organization Research Cluster.

New series of seminars on Historical Theory at IHR London

Steph

The ‘mothership’ for historians in the UK, the Institute of Historical Research in London (IHR) is hosting a series of seminars on historical theories, starting tomorrow, which may be of interest to some of the current debates in organizational history.

Questioning Theories of History

Institute of Historical Research. London, UK.

Senate House, Malet St., London WC1

Speakers include:

15th October: Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen (University of Oulu): ‘Do We Need Analytic Philosophy of History?’

29th October: Anton Froeyman (Ghent University): The Excluded Middle? Levinasian Ethics as a Middle Ground between Historical Representation and Historical Experience’

12th November: Keith Jenkins (University of Chichester): ‘On Disobedient Histories’

26th November: Martin Davies (University of Leicester): Enlightenment or Modernity: The Question of Historical Continuity’

10th December: Wulf Kansteiner (Aarhus University): History between Story and Argument: Reviving Narratological Analyses of Professional Historical Writing’