Call for Papers

Awareness is increasing regarding the role of dominant organizing forms – in particular the for-profit corporate form – in producing economic, political, social and environmental crises of capitalism (Fraser, 2022; Zanoni et al., 2017). Corporations are regularly criticized for lacking depth of commitment to social responsibility, proposing simplistic solutions to complex problems, and primarily serving shareholder interests in practice despite rhetoric to the contrary (Davis, 2016). Overall, critiques call for a profound transformation of dominant business models and practices, requiring creative reimagination of the purpose of the organization, drawing inspiration from various traditions, sectors and geographies (Cruz et al., 2017; Luyckx et al., 2022).
 
Such radical reimagination is impeded, however, by a lack of awareness of alternatives (Davis, 2016), taken-for-granted assumptions regarding the limits of alternative organizing (Shanahan, 2024), and the privatization of creativity (Haiven, 2014). These impediments are challenged by alternative organizations, which are defined by their departure from dominant models, practices, and norms (Alakavuklar, 2023; Dahlman et al., 2022). Such alternative organizations include cooperatives, worker-owned enterprises, community-supported organizations, and social enterprises, among others (Luyckx et al., 2022; Mair & Rathert, 2021). By realizing alternatives to the for-profit corporate form in practice, these organizations expose the injustices reproduced by the dominant socio-economic system, demonstrating the non-necessity of inequalities along intersecting vectors of class, race, tribe, caste, and gender (Vijay & Varman, 2018).
 
Existing research on alternative organizations tends to focus on their viability within a context constructed for the for-profit corporate form. This research explores, for instance, possibilities for resistance to the iron rule of oligarchy (Soetens & Huybrechts, 2023) and avenues to avoid mission drift towards mainstream goals (Bretos et al., 2023) and cooptation by hegemonic actors (Barinaga, 2018). Given this defensive orientation, the other side of the coin – how alternative organizations influence the contexts in which they are embedded – has generally been left to more macro-focused disciplines, such as sociology and political science (King & Pearce, 2010; Heller 2012).
 
Nevertheless, attention to the socially transformational potential of alternative organizing is increasing within organization studies (Mair & Rathert, 2021; Zanoni et al., 2017). This sub-theme proposes to advance this side of alternative organizations scholarship, stimulating conversations on whether and how such organizing can contribute to transformation at both the interorganizational and societal level. At the interorganizational level, alternative organizations’ models, practices, and norms may diffuse to other types of organizations (Cruz et al., 2017; Luyckx et al., 2022) via mechanisms of, for instance, ‘scaling across’ or ‘scaling out’ (Bauwens et al., 2020; Colombo et al., 2023). At the societal level, alternative organizations can act as laboratories of structural change (Vijay et al., 2023) through the prefiguration of ‘real’ or ‘concrete’ utopias (Gümüsay & Reinecke, 2022; Schiller-Merkens, 2022; Shanahan, 2024).
 
Consistent with the theme of the EGOS Colloquium 2025, our sub-theme aims to explore how alternative organizations may move from experimenting with creative models and practices at a niche level towards diffusing these creative models and practices across society. By doing so, this sub-theme aims to demonstrate that mainstream models, practices, and norms of organizing are not necessary or logically determined. Such deviations challenge established assumptions and open space for creativity in exploring broader possibilities. We particularly invite contributions that engage with alternative organizations as mechanisms of creative social transformation.
 
Specific questions participants may wish to address include but are not limited to:

• What are the dynamics through which creative alternative models, practices, and norms can be diffused at the inter-organizational and societal levels? What are different pathways to diffusion and what are their opportunities and challenges?

• Under which organizational, inter-organizational and societal conditions may cooptation be averted (or not) to enable alternative organizations’ influence on “mainstream” actors and practices?

• What coalitions can be leveraged to support power configurations that favour values and practices experienced by alternative organizations?

• What role do or might digital technologies play in the diffusion of alternatives, or in the exploration of unrealized creative organizational possibilities?

• How can existing theoretical frameworks be brought to bear on the question of diffusing alternative models, practices, and norms?

• What are the ethical implications of different diffusion strategies?

• What is the role of the state in promoting or inhibiting alternative forms of organizing?

• What is the role of organization theory in diffusing socially transformative practices? How might, for instance, economic performativity be harnessed in service of such diffusion?

• How does the diffusion of alternative practices enact collective creative processes that inhere values of justice and equality? How can such processes build on experimental practices from the Global South, so as to decentre Global North-centric discourses and practices of creativity?

References

• Alakavuklar, O. N. (2023): “Untangling alternative organising within and beyond capitalist relations: The case of a free food store.” Human Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267231203096

• Barinaga, E. (2018): “Coopted! Mission Drift in a Social Venture Engaged in a Cross-Sectoral Partnership.” VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 31 (1), 437–449.
• Bauwens, T., Huybrechts, B., & Dufays, F. (2020): “Understanding the diverse scaling strategies of social enterprises as hybrid organizations: The case of renewable energy cooperatives.” Organization and Environment, 33 (2), 195-219.
• Bretos, I., Errasti, A. & Marcuello, C. (2023): “Power in the Process of Reversing Mission Drift in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of a French Multinational Worker Co-operative.” Business & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/00076503231212848
• Colombo, L. A., Bailey, A. R. & Gomes, M.V.P. (2023): “Scaling in a post-growth era: Learning from social agricultural cooperatives.” Organization, https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221147480
• Cruz, L.B., Alves, M.A. & Delbridge, R. (2017): “Next steps in organizing alternatives to capitalism: Toward a relational research agenda: Introduction to the Special Issue.” M@n@gement, 20 (4), 322–335.
• Dahlman, S., Mygind du Plessis, E., Husted, E. & Just, S. N. (2022): “Alternativity as freedom: Exploring tactics of emergence in alternative forms of organizing.” Human Relations, 75 (10), 1961-1985.
• Davis, G. F. (2016): “Can an economy survive without corporations? Technology and robust organizational alternatives.” Academy of Management Perspectives, 30 (2), 129-140.
• Fraser, N. (2022): Cannibal capitalism: How our system is devouring democracy, care, and the planet and what we can do about it. New York: Verso Books.
• Gümüsay, A. A. & Reinecke, J. (2022): “Researching for desirable futures: From real utopias to imagining alternatives.” Journal of Management Studies, 59 (1), 236-242.
• Haiven, M. (2014): Crises of imagination, crises of power: Capitalism, creativity and the commons. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
• Heller, P. (2012): “Democracy, participatory politics and development: Some comparative lessons from Brazil, India and South Africa.” Polity, 44 (4), 643-665.
• King, B. G. & Pearce, N. A. (2010): “The contentiousness of markets: Politics, social movements, and institutional change in markets.” Annual Review of Sociology, 36 (1), 249-267.
• Luyckx, J., Schneider, A. & Kourula, A. (2022): Learning from alternatives: Analyzing alternative ways of organizing as starting points for improving the corporation. In Meyer, R.E., Leixnering, S. & Veldman, J. (Eds.): The corporation: Rethinking the iconic form of business organization, 78, 209-231. Emerald Publishing Limited.
• Schiller-Merkens, S. (2022): “Prefiguring an alternative economy: Understanding prefigurative organizing and its struggles.” Organization. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221124189
• Shanahan, G. (2024): “Two routes to degeneration, two routes to utopia: The impure critical performativity of alternative organizing”, Organization. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084231223639
• Soetens, A. & Huybrechts, B. (2023): “Resisting the Tide: The Roles of Ideology in Sustaining Alternative Organizing at a Self-managed Cooperative.” Journal of Management Inquiry, 32 (2), 134-151.
• Vijay, D., Monin, P. & Kulkarni, M. (2023): “Strangers at the bedside: Solidarity-making to address institutionalized infrastructural inequalities.” Organization Studies, 44 (8), 1281-1308.
• Vijay, D. & Varman, R. (2018): Alternative organisations in India: Undoing boundaries. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
• Zanoni, P., Contu, A., Healy, S. & Mir, R. (2017): “Post-capitalistic politics in the making: The imaginary and praxis of alternative economies.” Organization, 24 (5), 575-588.
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