Negotiating Better Worlds in the ‘Anthropocene’: Critical Histories and Future Livelihoods

Abstract

This symposium provides an opportunity to discuss, with a distinguished panel of scholars, some of the challenges for business and management arising from the epoch of the Anthropocene, developing things we have learned about organization from the experience of COVID-19. Presentations will address three principal challenges: (a) how to 'open up' negotiations with materials and practices (meat, plastics, animals, guns, food, clothing) that have been typically neglected in the standard histories of modern business and management in an effort to explain: how did we get here? (b) how management and organization studies can develop sustainable and cooperative models of working and living together in the Anthropocene based on these negotiations; and (c) assess what the future of work and management will look like in the Anthropocene by drawing on recent studies of contemporary but non-standard and non-modern business practices. The panel presentations are followed by interactive discussions and dialogues across the panel and with audience members. Each round-table is led by a chair and supported by a discussant. The round table sessions will allow participants to share ideas and critical reflections on living together in the Anthropocene. Man v Meat: The Hidden Anthropocene of Three Fleshly Case Studies Presenter: Bill Cooke; U. of York These Lips are No Longer Sealed: Restorying Non-Corporeal Connections Through Seal Hunting Presenter: Shelley Price; Gustavson School of Business, U. of Victoria French absolutist military technology: Fossil fuels, guns, and military Keynesianism Presenter: Richard Marens; California State U. Sacramento Clothing Ourselves in Hot Climates: Oulipean Experiments and Crafty Practices Presenter: Marta Gasparin; Copenhagen Business School Researching Ocean Plastic Pollution: A patchy road to Anthropocene knowledge-making in MOS Presenter: Seray Ergene; U. of Rhode Island Dee Constructing Organization: Fermenting Ethno-geomorphology and Becoming Activist Presenter: Damian O'Doherty; Critical Management Studies