New Article in Information & Organization: »Digital platforms and democratic publics: How social media platforms selectively appropriate and strategically subvert institutional logics«

Cover of the Journal "Information & Organization"

One reason why it is so hard to reign into Big Tech social media platforms is their own contradictions. In a brand new article by Elke Schüßler, Sara Maric and myself, we try to unpack how Big Tech both expand and subvert democratic publics by looking at the case of YouTube – and explore the potentials and challenges of Fediverse alternatives based on decentralized architectures and distributed governance.

The issue is that both is true at the same time: YouTube has expanded our democratic public by lowering barriers for content creation and distribution; and it also has subverted our democratic public by amplifying extremist, emotionalising or propagandistic content.

To give another example, it is YouTube’s monopolistic market dominance is that makes it so strong and valuable as a market place for creators and users alike; at the same time, the proprietary governance by profit-driven algorithms leads to discriminatory practices such as shadow bans without accountability, frustrating both creators and users.

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New Article in Health Policy: »Experiences and social constructions of loneliness in later life: Collaborative focus group discussions in Germany«

Graphical Abstract of the article "Experiences and social constructions of loneliness in later life: Collaborative focus group discussions in Germany"
Graphical abstract of the article

While Aging in Place – the possibility to grow old in one’s own home – is a wide-spread ideal for many people, it comes with an increased risk of loneliness in later life. In a study spearheaded by my PhD student Andrea Kastl and co-authored together with Ulrike Fettke, we empirically explored the perspectives and practices of dealing with loneliness as voiced by older people who want to age in place. The study entitled “Experiences and social constructions of loneliness in later life: Collaborative focus group discussions in Germany” has now been published in the journal Health Policy. Our main conclusions based upon collaborative focus group discussions:

Assessing loneliness requires taking individual perspectives into account, as mere quantification of social contacts is insufficient for evaluation or intervention design. To help cope with loneliness, health professionals are an important social interface and can become a substitute for close relationships. This should be reflected in professional roles and in developing complementary technologies and policies.

The article is available open access over at Health Policy.

New Essay in »Digital Responsibility: Building Bridges Between Organization Theory and Information Systems« in SBUR

Cover of SBUR journal

In the wake of a workshop on “Digital Responsibility” at the Annual Meeting of the Association of Professors of Business Administration (VHB) at Leuphana University Lüneburg that brought together scholars and perspectives from organization studies (OS) and information systems (IS), the workshop organizers Hannah Trittin-Ulbrich, Markus Zimmer and Stefanie Habersang edited a curated essay collection to be published in Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research (SBUR).

Together with Elke Schüßler and Maren Gierlich-Joas, I contributed one such essay offering “Interdisciplinary Theoretical Reflections On Digital Responsibility”. It is summarized in the introducation as follows:

Essay 1 situates the first and second fault line in OS and IS scholars ongoing discourses on theory. The authors distinguish three views of theorizing that we can find in both disciplines. They highlight that OT and IS scholars often draw on the same theories, which provides a basis for interdisciplinary research into digital responsibility. Offering a vantage point, they present avenues for such research by their three views of theorizing.

The whole essay collection is available open access over at SBUR.

Digital Democracy Day 2025: Interview und Impuls

Screenshot Online-Impuls im Rahmen des Digital Democracy Day 2025

Am 6. November 2025 fand in Berlin zum ersten Mal der #DigitalDemocracyDay2025 statt. Ich durfte mit einem kurzen Online-Impuls zum Thema “Von Wikipedia für Digitale Demokratie lernen” mit dabei sein (Slides). Bereits vorab hat Bernhard Seiler für SWR Aktuell Radio mit mir zum Thema gesprochen – das Interview findet sich hier zum Nachhören:

Die Aufzeichnung des Livestreams der Veranstaltung ist bereits online, mein Beitrag beginnt ungefähr bei 1h40 Minuten:

Im Folgenden meine Vortragsnotizen für all jene, die lieber lesen als schauen:

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Call for Submissions: 3rd Open Strategy Workshop at University of Innsbruck

Location of the 3rd Open Strategy Workshop in Innsbruck (Credit: Leonhard Lenz, CC0)

After the first two workshops gathering Open Strategy scholars took place in Zurich (2024) and Oxford (2025), we are excited to announce the 3rd workshop will be hosted by University of Innsbruck on June 25-26, 2026. The call for extended abstracts is already live. Your extended abstract should align with the general theme of Open Strategy and must not have been previously published. Authors of accepted abstracts will have the opportunity to attend the two-day workshop in person and apply for poster presentations. To ensure high-quality exchanges and foster meaningful connections, on-site participation is limited.

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New Article in Journal of Business Ethics: »Parrying Diversity-Hostility and Ethical Dilemmas of Organizing Inclusion«

various covers of journal of business ethics

It is not a coincidence that organizational efforts to support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are in the eye of the neofascist storm that is currently devastating US-based institutions and has already begun to reverberate globally. The hostility toward DEI results from the fact that such initiatives not only seek to broaden participation, but also unsettle entrenched hierarchies and cultural privileges. This makes them an obvious target for movements aiming to restore exclusionary orders under the guise of tradition, merit, or freedom of speech. Yet, despite their centrality to current political contestations, organizational approaches to DEI remain ill-prepared to address the growing intensity of diversity-hostile communication.

In the article “Parrying Diversity-Hostility and Ethical Dilemmas of Organizing Inclusion” co-authored by my sister Laura Dobusch, Milena Leybold and me, we explore ‘parrying’ diversity hostility as an increasingly necessary DEI practice (in addition to traditional orientations of promoting inclusion and preventing discrimination). The case we are looking at is that of the controversy around the so-called ‘Google Diversity Memo’ by James Damore, which eventually led to the author’s dismissal. Check out the abstract below:

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PhD Position in the area of Management Control at the Department of Organization and Learning

Logo University of Innsbruck

There is currently an open PhD position at the Department of Organization and Learning. The position is in the area of management control (Supervisor: Professor Martin Messner). Application deadline is August 22, 2025. For more information on how to apply, please see: https://lfuonline.uibk.ac.at/public/karriereportal.details?asg_id_in=12684

Call for Papers: Special Issue in Business & Society on »Collective actorhood and organizationality: Recalibrating responsibility in business-society relations«

Logo of the journal "Business & Society"

Ten years after Dennis Schoeneborn and I had introduced the idea of ‘organizationality’ to conceptualize organization as a matter of degree in our joint article “Fluidity, Identity and Organizationality”, we have teamed up with Héloïse Berkowitz, Frank de Bakker and Consuelo Vásquez for a special issue on “Collective actorhood and organizationality: Recalibrating responsibility in business-society relations” (PDF of the Call) to be published in Business & Society. We will be supported in the editorial work by consulting editor Devi Vijay as well as Business & Society editor Colin Higgins. Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2026. Please check out the full call for papers below:

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Pre-Conference Post: The First Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Europe

Picture of a souvenir shop ft. "Hygge" in Copenhagen
The first word I encountered right out of the Metro is, of course, “Hygge”.

In previous years, I have only blogged after attending international conferences such as the Academy of Management Annual Meeting. However, to some degree, a pre-conference posting might be much more helpful for people who want to meet up. So, having already arrived in Copenhagen, let me briefly and chronologically list sessions and other occasions I will be involved in at this year’s Academy of Management Annual Meeting – the first ever to be hosted outside of North America:

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