Author: leonidobusch

Professor of Organization at University of Innsbruck | Co-founder Momentum Conference and Momentum Institut | ZDF Verwaltungsrat | Blogging at netzpolitik.org

Research Blog Recommendation (2): Work in Progress

Graph used as an avatar picture for the “Work in Progress” Twitter account @WIPsociology

Blogs are always work in progress. Ideally, the endless format of blogging allows to continuously revise and add to previous lines of thought and argument. Ironically, the blog “Work in Progress” mostly presents concise summaries of already published sociological studies in the fields of economy, work and inequality. The title nevertheless fits, not only because of its nod to a politically progressive undertone but also because the end of a research project is – at best – the beginning of some policy changes.

The blog is co-sponsored by four different sections of the American Sociological Association (ASA) and intends “to disseminate sociological research and findings to the general public, with a particular emphasis on contributing to policy debates.” Continue reading “Research Blog Recommendation (2): Work in Progress” →

Vortragsvideo: »Kopieren. Remixen. Teilen. OER in digitaler Hochschullehre«

Ende November durfte ich anlässlich der Preisverleihung des e-Learning Champion “eLCH 2017” an der Universität Graz einen Gastvortrag zum Thema »Kopieren. Remixen. Teilen. Open Educational Resources als Praxis digitaler Hochschullehre« halten. Offenheit von Lehr- und Lernunterlagen (Open Educational Resources, OER) waren das Überthema des Wettbewerbs.

Seit kurzem ist jetzt eine Aufzeichnung des Vortrags bei YouTube verfügbar:

Die Folien zum Vortrag finden sich bei Slideshare:  Continue reading “Vortragsvideo: »Kopieren. Remixen. Teilen. OER in digitaler Hochschullehre«” →

Magazin »Zukunft Forschung« zum Thema »Offenes Wissen«

Zukunft Forschung, das Magazin für Wissenschaft und Forschung der Universität Innsbruck, widmet sich in seiner neuesten Ausgabe dem Schwerpunktthema “Offenes Wissen”. Und weil sich auch bei digitalen Technologien Offenheit nicht von alleine einstellt, habe ich mit Melanie Bartos über das Thema “Offenheit organisieren” gesprochen (PDF des Interviews). Auszug daraus:

ZUKUNFT: Welche Perspektiven sehen Sie für diesen Weg hin zu mehr Öffnung?
DOBUSCH: Um bei dem Beispiel mit Universitätsverlagen zu bleiben: Früher war die Rolle von Universitätsbibliotheken vor allem, ihren Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern den Zugang zum Weltwissen zu organisieren. Vielleicht ist es jetzt umgekehrt: Die Bibliothek muss der Welt Zugang zum Wissen der Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern ihrer Einrichtung ermöglichen. Da findet eine Redefinition von Rollen statt. Auch wenn die Organisation von Offenheit mit Aufwand verbunden ist, lohnt es sich auf jeden Fall: Gerade der offene Zugang zu Wissen ist gesamtgesellschaftlich von großem Wert. Meiner Ansicht nach geht es nicht mehr um die Frage, ob wir offen sein sollen, sondern wie wir diese Offenheit gestalten.

Die gesamt Ausgabe lässt sich online lesen.

 

Neue Studie: »Mögliche Wege zum Schulbuch als Open Educational Resources«

Ausschnitt des Studiencovers von Daniela Gnad, Salzburg Research Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H., unter Verwendung einer Abwandlung des OER Global Logos von Jonathas Mello (CC-BY 3.0)

Im Rahmen der „Schulbuchaktion“ werden in Österreich seit 1972 Schülerinnen und Schüler unentgeltlich mit Schulbüchern versorgt. Pro Schuljahr werden auf diesem Wege mehr als 100 Millionen Euro für über 8 Millionen Schulbücher verausgabt.

Kein Kriterium für diese substantielle öffentliche Investition sind bislang jedoch offene Lizenzen, die im Zeitverlauf zu einem kontinuierlich wachsenden Bestand an frei zugänglichen Lernunterlagen führen würden. Um die Möglichkeiten für eine Öffnung der Schulbuchaktion für offene Lehr- und Lernunterlagen (Open Educational Resources, OER) näher zu untersuchen, wurde deshalb Salzburg Research vom Bildungsministerium mit der Erstellung einer Machbarkeitsstudie beauftragt. Die von Sandra Schön, Katharina Kreissl, Martin Ebner und mir verfasste Studie ist seit kurzem auch offiziell auf der Webseite des Bildungsministeriums unter Creative-Commons-Lizenz zugänglich (PDF der Studie).

Book Review of »Organizational Wrongdoing« edited by Palmer, Smith-Crowe, and Greenwood

Earlier this year I was asked to serve as an Organization Studies book reviewer for ‘Organizational Wrongdoing’ edited by Donald Palmer, Kristin Smith-Crowe, and Royston Greenwood. My review has now been published in the most recent issue of Organization Studies. The final paragraph summarizes my reading of the volume as follows:

The final chapter of the volume (Chapter 16 by Chugh and Kern) then returns to the individual level in presenting suggestions on how to conceptualize and practice “ethical learning”. The chapter is a truly worthy conclusion, providing concrete suggestions for management practice. At the same time, it is also prototypical for the volume as a whole, focusing on reflection at an individual level instead of more collective and political processes of dealing with organizational wrongdoing. The latter perspective would not only put more emphasis on processes of subjectivation in the course of attributing “wrongdoing” to individuals, but might also arrive at different suggestions for practice such as ideas related to criminal law for corporations. This would reflect the, at least partially, emergent character of organizational wrongdoing. Given the importance of political processes and institutional contexts for organizational wrongdoing highlighted by several of the contributions in this volume, political organizing based on solidarity is probably as important as ethical learning by individuals.

The full text of the book review is available at the journal’s website. As usual, please send me an e-mail in case you are interested but your institution does not provide access to the journal.

 

Research Blog Recommendation (1): Orgtheory.net

This series points to other research blogs of potential interest for the Organization Studies Innsbruck Community.

Orgtheory.net is a multi-author blog run mostly by US scholars. All bloggers at orgtheory.net share a strong research orientation and they take organization theory seriously. The basic load of the blog is provided by hard blogging researcher Fabio Rojas, professor of sociology at Indiana University.  He has also authored over 40 posts on “grad school rulez”, explaining everything there is to know about US graduate education and PhD programs (see also the e-book version).

Above all, orgtheory.net is one of the oldest and continuously filled blogs in the realm of organization studies and therefore a worthy first entry in this series. Check back soon for more recommendations.

At a glance:

  • Orgtheory.net provides timely assessment of current debates in organization theory from a US perspective.
  • URL: orgtheory.net
  • Twitter/Facebook: –

 

Launch of the Blog »Organizing Openness: Concepts and Cases«

As Maximilian Heimstadt has announced earlier this week, we are currently working on a textbook on “Organizing Openness”. Given the topic of the book, we plan to also openly document the process of writing the textbook itself.

In the course of a kick-off meeting to launch the project in Vienna, we therefore started a blog on “Organizing Openness: Concepts and Cases” under O2C2.org (you can also follow the blog via Twitter at @O2C2project). In addition to continuous updates on the blog, we will also link to working documents for each of the chapters on the page “Textbook-in-Progress“, which will be open for anyone to comment.

New Publication: »Memes as Games: The Evolution of a Digital Discourse Online«

Stylized depiction of the “Hope” meme (Seiffert-Brockmann et al., 2017)

Probably the most pervasive example of how the internet turned popular culture from read-only into read-write (Lessig, 2008) is internet memes. In a new paper published in New Media & Society, Jens Seiffert-Brockmann, Trevor Diehl and myself have tried theoretically capture the communication logic of how memes spread and evolve. This is the abstract:  Continue reading “New Publication: »Memes as Games: The Evolution of a Digital Discourse Online«” →

Study Questions for Article on »Financialization as Strategy« Courtesy of Dirk Bezemer

Today I received a surprising and pleasant e-mail by Dirk Bezemer from University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He had come across the recently published article of Sebastian Botzem and myself on “Financialization as strategy: Accounting for inter-organizational value creation in the European real estate industry” (see also a summary of key points). And he not only read the paper but also chose to use it as a teaching case.

And I am very grateful that Dirk agreed to sharing his teaching questions on this blog (DOC/PDF), thereby effectively turning a research paper into a teaching case.

Continue reading “Study Questions for Article on »Financialization as Strategy« Courtesy of Dirk Bezemer” →

Program of the 2nd OS ConJunction Students and Alumni Day: »Organizing and Entrepreneurship«

(Picture: Martin Grandjean, CC BY-SA 3.0)

The Alumni-Team of the Master Program Organization Studies and the Transferstelle Wissenschaft – Wirtschaft – Gesellschaft invite to the 2nd Organization Studies ConJunction Students and Alumni Day on November 24, 2017, 3:00 p.m., Kaiser-Leopold-Saal, Faculty of Theology, University of Innsbruck. And this is the program under the headline of “Organizing and Entrepreneurship”: Continue reading “Program of the 2nd OS ConJunction Students and Alumni Day: »Organizing and Entrepreneurship«” →