Review: Homo Deus: a Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari

This article reviews Harari's Homo Deus and discusses its possible significance for organisation studies

The limits of ontological critique: from judgmental rationality to justification

The Cambridge Social Ontology (CSO) programme’s inability to generate a meaningful dialogue with mainstream economics is difficult to understand by mere reference to judgmental rationality and without reference to CSO’s ideological configuration. Our paper uses an économie des conventions framework to draw systematic comparisons between CSO’s ideological configuration and the ideological configurations of mainstream economic theories and practice. The resulting analysis helps us to understand not only why CSO generated little response from the mainstream, but also how CSO might renew its critique in ways that might be more likely to produce a response

Accumulation through derealization: how corporate violence remains unchecked

This study examines the alleged organization of violence by Coca-Cola through a field study conducted in a village in India. It draws on the works of Judith Butler to show how subaltern groups are derealized and made into ungrievable lives through specific, yet recurrent, practices that keep violence unchecked. Many participants attempt to resist derealization through protest activities that showcase their vulnerability. However, the firm appropriates their claims to vulnerability through a paternalistic discourse that justifies intensified violence and derealization. This research offers insights into accumulation through derealization and on the effects of resistance to it

The politics of post-human technologies: Human enhancements, artificial intelligence and virtual reality

This essay encourages fellow scholars to consider critical organizational studies of post-human technologies. While these nascent technologies hold many promises, they also risk exacerbating several unacceptable organizational features that have been regularly documented, discussed and combated in Organization over the past 30 years. These features include, among other evils, corporate domination and colonization; further erosion of organic solidarity; entrenchment of inegalitarian imaginaries; and impoverished lifeworlds oriented toward instrumental efficiency alone. In order to steer them democratically, we need reflexive empirical studies of post-human technologies in connection with big societal issues

Ontological unpredictability: what can realists say about unpredictability, contingency and catastrophe?

This paper introduces the original research articles that constitute the present Forum issue on unpredictability, contingency and catastrophe. In doing so, it also identifies and discusses the specificity of realist approaches to the above questions. It is argued that attentiveness to the ontological dimension of (un)predictability opens promising avenues for reflexive approaches to social science and collective action

Ontology: philosophical discussions and implications for organization studies

This chapter discusses the import of philosophical discussions of ontology for organisational studies. It analyses the ontological presuppositions of positivism that still permeate much of sociology and organisational studies. These ontological presuppositions are then discussed from philosophical perspectives that propose or presuppose different ontologies: interpretivism; Heideggerian ontology; negative ontology and realism. The chapter then traces how these philosophical debates are reflected and extended in the field of organisational studies. The following approaches are discussed: positivism, Marxism, critical realism, post-foundational approaches, actor network theory, process perspectives, postcolonial critique, ethnomethodology and symbolic interactionism. We conclude by highlighting promising developments at the intersection of ontology and organisation studies: encouraging multiple methods of enquiry; asking ‘what is’, ‘how did’ and ‘what does it do’ questions; reflecting on ontology’s ethical and political implications; and refining the sensitivity and coherence of future studies of organisations

Collective forgetting in a changing organization: when memories become unusable and uprooted

How is collective remembering inhibited by organizational changes which were not intended to manipulate it? And how does collective forgetting affect workers’ power and sense of identity? We rely on an ethnographic study of a charitable organization that went through recent organizational changes to study two processes constitutive of collective forgetting. The first process consists in the past becoming unusable because onceuseful memories lost their practical usefulness for participants’ new activities. The second process consists in the past becoming uprooted because the social relations through which memories used to be shared had changed beyond recognition. Our findings provide insights into the organizational processes through which memories cease to circulate. They also help understand the complex relations between memory, power relations and participants’ sense of identity

Workplace humiliation and the organization of domestic work

This study of domestic workers and employers in Kolkata (India) examines the significance of workplace humiliation as an important yet neglected concept for organization studies. It identifies practices of symbolic, sexual and physical workplace humiliation that shape corporeality and subjectivity in such a way that workers feel inferior, fearful and docile. Practices of workplace humiliation serve the purpose of social reproduction by stabilizing the existing skewed power relations between workers and employers, and making workers comply inexpensively with the harsh requirements of highly exploitative workplaces. In foregrounding humiliation as a key organizational mechanism, this study furthers understanding of workplace humiliation, oppression, caste and exploitation in organization studies

How can the loggerhead sea-turtle survive? Exploring the journeys of the Caretta caretta using ANT and critical realism

The endangered loggerhead sea-turtle (Caretta caretta) nests on the shores of the Mediterranean, but faces threats to its existence from a variety of sources. Answering the question of how this species can survive is complex as it involves examining the relationships between the turtle, its natural environment, local tourists, property developers, conservation organisations, governments and law-makers. We argue that actor-network theory (ANT) provides a powerful methodology for tracing these relations and identifying crucial actors which enable the survival of this animal. Using a rich ethnography and drawing on insights from 116 interviews, we trace three actor-networks that highlight factors important to the survival of the species. Yet, we also highlight the conceptual difficulties that result from using an ANT ontology for understanding socio-ecological interactions and argue that these may be ameliorated by embedding the ANT methodology within a critical realist (CR) ontology. We argue that this engagement between CR and ANT offers researchers a powerful method for understanding relations between socio-ecological actors whilst overcoming some of the theoretical difficulties of ANT