Faculty
Professor Paul du Gay, IOA

Course Coordinator
Professor Paul du Gay, IOA

Participants on this course should be researching in the broad areas of organisation studies, critical management studies and/or the wider social sciences (especially: sociology, social anthropology, politics, and social policy). Ideally, they should be interested in researching questions of organisation and identity, broadly conceived, using predominantly qualitative forms of methodology. Participants will be expected to submit a short written assignment that outlines elements of their own research project (research question/hypothesis/theoretical interests/methodological intent) in relation to the literature used on the course. Deadline for the paper is 1 September, 2009.

The course focuses upon the relations between organisational change and the reformation of individual and collective work and consumption based-identities. The course aims to cover debates about organising identity in three main areas: 1) Organisations, Identities and Consumption, 2) Work, Control and Identity in Large Corporations, 3) Public Service Re-Organisation: Work, Identity and Citizenship.

The course will cover some of the key theoretical debates that have helped frame discussion of organisation and identity in the social and human sciences over the last decade and a half in these three key areas – including, notably, the post-Foucauldian inspired debates about ’entrepreneurial selves’ and questions of ’governmentality’. The course will therefore traverse a range of empirical sites, where some of the most interesting discussions of organisation and identity have been situated, and offer an introduction to some of the key theories that have been deployed to analyse and explain changes in both organisational and personal identity. The overall course theme, and the sites and perspectives it invokes, have been key areas of debate in organisation and management studies and the sociology of economic life in recent years.

The course is centred around an exposition of the interconnected changes in political and cultural economy, organisations, and peoples’ activities such as consumers, employees, and citizens. The course aims to situate its discussion of these changes in relation to developments in three main research areas: 1) Organisations, Identities and Consumption, 2) Work, Control and Identity in Large Corporations, 3) Public Service Re-Organisation: Work, Identity and Citizenship. At the same time, and relatedly, the course introduces some of the key theoretical debates that have framed the interpretation and analysis of identity in these areas. Participants will therefore have the chance to explore and analyse the organisation of identity and the identity of organising in three distinctive research fields.

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:

The course will combine short interactive lectures by Faculty, with break-out sessions where participants discuss specific issues of theory, method and interpretation, in small groups, and in the full group, and student presentations with feedback from other students and faculty. Pertinent matters related to the course themes will also be explored via an examination and discussion of specific texts. These may include: a film (documentary or fiction), newspaper reports and articles, and consultant reports etc.

J. Webb (2006) Organizations, Identities and the Self, Palgrave Macmillan

Course compendium.