Organization Studies and Posthumanism

This book aims at exploring the reception of critical posthumanist conversations in the context of Management and Organization Studies. It constitutes an invitation to de-center the human subject and thus an invitation to the ongoing deconstruction of humanism. The project is not to deny humans but to position them in relation to other nonhumans, more-than-humans, the non-living world, and all the "missing masses" from organizational inquiry. What is under critique is humanism's anthropocentrism, essentialism, exceptionalism, and speciesism in the context of the Anthropocene and the contemporary crisis the world experiences. From climate change to the loss of sense at work, to the new geopolitical crisis, to the unknown effects of the diffusion of AI, all these powerful forces have implications for organizations and organizing. A re-imagination of concepts, theories, and methods is needed in organization studies to cope with the challenge of a more-than-human world.

François-Xavier de Vaujany is full professor of Organization Studies at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL and researcher within DRM. His research deals with the political and societal dimensions of (new) ways of organizing work and their management. He is particularly interested in the time-space of contemporary digital organization of work. Post-phenomenologies and process philosophy are key perspectives of his research emphasizing the apocalyptic process of digital management and organization. Silvia Gherardi is senior professor of sociology of organization at the University of Trento (Italy), where she founded the Research Unit on Communication, Organizational Learning, and Aesthetics (www.unitn.it/rucola). She is also professor II at the School of Business, Society and Engineering, M-lardalens University (Sweden). She received the degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa" from Roskilde University (2005), East Finland University (2010) and St Andrews University (2014). Her research interests include feminist new materialism, entrepreneurship, epistemology of practice, and postqualitative methodologies in organization studies. Polyana Silva is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sao Paulo, where she is conducting research on the enmeshed aspects of life in a digitalized and virtualized worlds. Her particular areas of interest include virtual worlds, virtual beings, and metaverse projects, which she approaches from a posthumanist perspective. She has been part of organizing committees of research-oriented events such as the Chaire France-Brésil USP, a Chaire devoted to "Digitality and Management: Presence, Time and Space"; and the Organizations, Artifacts & Practices (OAP) Workshop. She is a member of the research groups "Public Sector Accounting and Governance in Brazil (PSAG)" and Meta:lab - Metaverse Laboratory for Research and Innovation.

Introduction: Too-human? Inquiring in-between different disciplinary areas in Managing and Organizing Part I: Contextualizing the debate in a more-than-human world 1.1 We are the Missing People: On posthumanist onto-epistemologies in Organization Studies 1.2 Entrepreneuring as multispecies composting 1.3 From Legitimation to Alegitimation: Inviting Posthuman and Prehuman Ontologies into Theories of Institutions 1.4 Posthumanism as a system of codifying events Part II: Posthumanism in the world of management and organizing 2.1. Mapping the Posthumanist Conversations in Organization Studies 2.2. How practice theory participates to the critical posthumanist conversations 2.3 Posthumanism and sociomaterial organising: The case of Superbergamo's aid practices during the Covid19 pandemic 2.4 Between action and deliberation: Contributions of a posthumanist practice theory approach 2.5 Deleuzoguattarian cartographies of work and organizing in the human-robotic workplace Part III: Posthumanism: History or becoming? 3.1 Monsters and myths: Transhuman temporal narratives and mind/body problems 3.2 Lacan's challenge to posthumanism: The ethical case for speaking subjects 3.3 Edith Stein's Realms amid Posthumanism's Evolving Landscape: Conversations on the subject of "Subjectivity" 3.4 From expertise to encounter: Repopulating the inquiry for worldly healing General Conclusion: The Paradoxical Invitation of Posthumanism to Organization Studies: Between Processuality and Criticality