PhD defence: Anne Sofie Fischer

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of processes of social transformation among urban poor women in Delhi, as they seek to alter their life circumstances by taking up driving as a profession through the Women on Wheels program offered by the social enterprise Azad & Sakha. Based on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork the research explores multiple experiences and practices of social transformation and how such processes are facilitated. By developing a spatial approach, both conceptually and empirically the research sheds light on how to understand social transformation processually, and offers a more-than representational methodological framework to research such complex social processes. It demonstrates that social transformation can be seen as negotiations with one’s self, others and the surroundings that question status quo, and which potentially facilitate changes in corporeal, emotional, and relational practices. In keeping with more critical perspectives to social entrepreneurship, the research argues for situating social transformation in the politics of everyday life.
 
Primary Supervisor:
Professor Timon Beyes
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Secondary Supervisor:
Professor MSO Ester Barinaga
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Assessment Committee:
Professor Daniel Hjorth (Chair)
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Associate Professor Pascal Dey
Department of People, Organization and Society
Grenoble École de Management
 
Dr Sheena Vachhani
School of Economics, Finance and Management
University of Bristol
 
Thesis:
The thesis will be available here
 
Reception:
The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies will host a reception, which will take place immediately after the defence in the Gallery at Porcelænshaven 26.