NW 32: The impact of global realities on the prospects and experiences of Organizational Educational research

Network
NW 32. Organizational Education

Title
The impact of global realities on the prospects and experiences of Organizational Educational research

Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the global interconnectedness of our world and the burning need to address our profound global challenges. Becoming increasingly connected across transnational, national, regional and local contexts, we still face marginalized parallel worlds. A Transition into a sustainable future needs to address social inclusion, global equity and sustainable value chains. The “great transformation” refers to any field of society such as healthcare, ecology, education, economy, etc. and implies an important role of organizations. Our network ‘Organizational Education’ welcomes papers on organizational and networked learning and change. Most appreciated are empirical papers, but also theoretical and methodological papers are welcome.

The Call
Organizing is a universal topic for organizational education research. Due to organizing in pandemic times, it became increasingly relevant within the fields of health, science and security. Within the context of other major social challenges, such as climate change, organizing needs to be further discussed in the fields of futurability, sustainability and open innovation. In fact, organizations always deal with societal issues and in a globalizing and transnationalizing context. Be it the fluid global movement organizations or transnational corporations – the network ‘Organizational Education’ addresses a wide range of possible research themes around organizations, organizing and organizational transformation; these topoi also address the interrelatedness of organizational and social transformation. Just to mention a few: How do transnational bodies address collective solutions for global questions and challenges like global sustainability, migration issues, global justice and inclusion? How can impact of and in organizing be optimized? In addition global developments can be found not only on a discursive, transnational level but also in specific everyday organizing practices.

Theoretical perspectives
Based on the overall conference focus on the impact of global realities and their drive towards integration and fragmentation, Organizational Education connects to current theoretical debates in multiple research fields and academic disciplines such as organization theory, education research, cultural studies or sociology. Currently scholars discuss for one the potential of postcolonial perspectives for organizational education research. Theoretical concepts like the concept of ´translation´ contribute to organizational education research in order to better understand the given challenges, such as how organizations relate to the global UN Sustainable Development Goals; how organizing does happen in the civil society protests and public collective demands for sustainability policies; how the rights of future generations can be addressed; how ‘planetary organizing’ can be realized ; what the role of digitalization is or how the potential of intergenerational learning can be realized.

Empirical Contributions
Our network is highly interested in empirical contributions. In the light of bureaucracies, hierarchies and hegemonies we ask, how approaches of Organizational Education refer to the general need of democratizing of our organizations and societies; if and how current trends towards digitalization and project based organizing contribute to democratization; how ad-hoc forms of organizing become relevant within our global network societies; or how the role of learning in, of and between organizations in ad hoc organizing can be described, measured and analyzed? How can employees be trained adequately, how do network organizations transform and how can networks as such learn?

Methodological Contributions
How do we as organizational education researchers engage with the changed, changing and challenging realities of our time? From a methodological perspective, we ask, which kind of research strategies will be needed to adequately address local specifications. How to address for example complex transborder activities and organizing in and by research adequately? What can comparative research perspectives contribute? How can inter- and transcultural awareness be supported in organizational education research and design? As well the role of participatory and design-oriented research approaches will be relevant and the potential to co-create alternative futures of and in organizing be reflected. From a reflexivity perspective, questions of self concepts of researchers in Organizational Education are addressed, too.

Contact Person(s)

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