With a view to future events aimed at investigating how organizational theory might speak productively to questions around the organization of spaces, practices, and materials of consumption (details of which we hope to announce soonish), Charisma is pleased to announce a new partnership with What Makes Organization?. This is an ongoing research programme based at the Copenhagen Business School funded by the Velux Foundation in Denmark, and led by Paul du Gay (also a member of the Charisma Editorial Board) and Signe Vikkelsø. It investigates the historical and contemporary ability of Organization Theory (OT) both to analyze and to intervene in the experience of organizational life.

It pursues this aim through two mutually related strands of research: a) an analysis of the changing relationship between organization theory as an intellectual and practical discipline and the problems besetting modern organizations b) an historical analysis of classic, albeit largely forgotten or ignored, organization theories in order to explore their potential for helping to address contemporary organizational matters of concern. In so doing, a key objective is to revitalize Organization Theory as a practical science of organizing.

We attach here a WMO working paper, by du Gay and Vikkelsø that captures some of this emerging thinking:
Paul du Gay & Signe Vikkelsø (2012), Exploitation, exploration and exaltation: Notes on a metaphysical (re)turn to “one best way of organizing”.