This summer, ETHOS The Centre for Responsible Enterprise turns ten years old. In those ten years to say a lot has happened is an understatement. We’ve seen the rise of populism, Brexit, global pandemics, record-breaking temperatures, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and hyper speed shifts in technology, amongst others. The world is looking very different from 2014. Business, workers, communities, and the natural world are facing new challenges as well as the age-old. Yet innovation and activism, thankfully, persist.
To celebrate our 10-year anniversary, ETHOS invites friends old, new and forthcoming to discuss the future of responsible enterprise. In particular, and building on a forthcoming special issue in Human Relations (D’Cruz et al., 2024), we aim to celebrate work which takes the realm of CSR (broadly defined) into a new era, by centring alternative epistemologies, methodologies and theories. By diversifying our perspectives, centring the environment, and studying the micro contexts of those who interact with business and their activities, we hope to enable a more critical and productive space for scholarship.
The panel sessions and keynotes for this event will be run as hybrid and streamed via Zoom.
Agenda
*Subject to change
9.30 | Introduction and Welcome Lauren McCarthy, Director of ETHOS at Bayes Business School and André Spicer, Executive Dean of Bayes Business School. |
9.45 | Keynote 1: Dr Nolywé Delannon, Université Laval A creolized perspective on the politics of CSR: Unleashing epistemic disobedience, cultivating hope |
10.30 | Coffee and conversation/Breakout room chats |
11.00 | Panel 1: Looking back to build forward: What lessons can we learn? With Sébastien Mena, Banu Özkazanç-Pan, Hugh Willmott, Szilvia Mosonyi Chaired by Bobby Banerjee |
12.00 | Lunch |
13.15 | Keynote 2: Professor Banu Özkazanç-Pan, Brown University Transversal Politics and CSR: A Critique and Reorienting |
14.00 | Parallel Sessions (see below) 1/ Individuals as Drivers of Societal and Sustainability Changes (Chaired by Jean-Pascal Gond & Arthur Gauthier) 2/ Steering the Narrative: Governance, Social Media, and the Futures of Public Dialogue on Grand Challenges (Chaired by Itziar Castello-Molina & Saeid Rahanjam) 3/ Planetary (in)justice: Critique and praxis in and beyond the climate crisis (Chaired by Bobby Banerjee and Yousaf Nishat-Botero) |
15:30 | Coffee break |
15.45 | Panel 2: Future forward: Drawing from diverse contexts & perspectives for a more just world With Nolywé Delannon, Laura Spence, Samer Abdelnour, Dipsikha Guha Majumdar Chaired by Lauren McCarthy |
16.45 | Wrap up and thanks |
17:00 | Drinks |
Parallel Sessions:
1/ Individuals as Drivers of Societal and Sustainability Changes
Conveners: Arthur Gauthier – ESCP Business School & Jean-Pascal Gond – Bayes Business School, City, University of London
Overview: Research has highlighted the crucial role of individuals in the promotion of societal and sustainability changes within and across organizations, but in a fragmented manner and without linking these bottom-up and interindividual dynamics to broader field, professional, social, societal, and ecological levels dynamics. The purpose of this workshop is to take stock of recent developments in the related domains of micro-CSR, internal activism, issue selling, social intrapreneurship, tempered radicalism, and CSR-related consultancy with the aim to create more conversations between these distinct streams of studies. It is also to investigate empirically and theoretically how individuals operate within and through the processes aiming at making organizations greener, more sustainable, or more responsible, and the obstacles and support they encounter in their endeavours. We would welcome review, theory, or empirical papers focusing on how individuals develop within and across organizations new occupational mandates, powerful and transformative networks, or affect field-level professionalization dynamics through their individual actions.
Instructions for submission:
-Abstracts should be approximately 1,000 words, including references
-Deadline for submission April 1st, 2024; acceptance decision: mid April 2024
-The workshop will take place on May 16th (and may run until May 17th lunchtime)
-Please send your abstracts to Arthur Gauthier arthur.gauthier@edu.escp.eu (and please copy to your email Jean-Pascal Gond: jean-pascal.gond.1@city.ac.uk).
2/ Steering the Narrative: Governance, Social Media, and the Futures of Public Dialogue on Grand Challenges
Convenors: Itziar Castelló-Molina & Saeid Rahanjam, Bayes Business School, City, University of London.
We invite papers that address the antecedents, processes, and mechanisms underlying polarization and fake news leading to the decline of democracy and public leadership in grand challenges. We are especially interested in the issues around the governance of social media platforms spaces and other organizations where collective discourses are shaped. This panels aim at better understanding of governance issues that lead to the degeneration or the facilitation of reasonable public debate on grand challenges.
If you want to participate please send an abstract of 500 words to saeid.rahanjam@bayes.city.ac.uk by April 1st 2024; acceptance decision: mid April 2024.
3/ Planetary (in)justice: Critique and praxis in and beyond the climate crisis
Convenors: Hugh Willmott and Yousaf Nishat-Botero (City, University of London)
Speakers:
1. Elise Lobbedez (University of Essex)
2. Lisa Tilley (SOAS, University of London)
3. Samer Abdelnour (University of Edinburgh)
Discussant: Steffen Böhm (University of Exeter) - Online
This session on planetary (in)justice will bring together scholars working on the intersections of climate change, critical social theory, and organization studies. Invited speakers will discuss the economic, racial, gendered, and colonial legacies of the planetary ecological crisis. The aim is to explore the paths we might take to develop a deeper understanding of the present climate conjuncture, and the forms of scholarship and praxis needed to organize for planetary justice.
Please register to attend this session (online or in person) by emailing yousaf.nishat-botero@bayes.city.ac.uk.
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