Birke Otto
Associate Professor
Primary research areas
Failure and time in creativity and innovation discourses and practices
Transparency, secrecy, ignorance as organising principles
Online communities and digital media
Grand challenges (water governance, antimicrobial resistance) and alternative organizing
Organisation theory
Cultural sociology
Profile Description
As a cultural sociologist, I am concerned with how societal discourses are reflected, created, and challenged in the everyday practices of organisations. Currently, I work as a postdoctoral researcher in the "Organised Creativity" research group, funded by the German Research Council and based at Free University Berlin and Leuphana University Lüneburg. In this role, I explore how notions of failure, time, and secrecy shape creativity and innovation processes. My research spans various organisational contexts, including digital media, scientific laboratories, and the healthcare industry, which I study through processual and practice-based lenses. I serve on the editorial team of Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organisation and teach courses on organisational theory, innovation, alternative organisations, and sustainable futures.