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PDW 08 – Threads of Time: Weaving Craft, Creativity, and Temporality in Organization Studies

Convenors:
Christina Lüthy
Lund University, Sweden
Benjamin Schiemer
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Sunny Mosangzi Xu
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Call for Applications

Facilitators:
Miriam Feuls, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
Daniel Hjorth, Lund University, Sweden
Piera Morlacchi, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Birke Otto, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany
Yutaka Yamauchi, Kyoto University, Japan

Purpose

Drawing inspiration from the EGOS Colloquium 2025 theme “Creativity that goes a long way”, this PDW brings together scholars in time, craft, and creativity-related research. The workshop invites thoughtful and imaginative reflections on the intersection between these three research fields, to further develop an understanding of time, craft and creativity as dynamic and entangled processes.
 
While scholars in organization studies have had a long-standing interest in creativity, research on creativity has only recently taken a more processual (Hua et al., 2022; Fortwengel et al., 2017; Schiemer 2024) and temporal turn (Feuls, Lüthy & Svejenova, 2023; Otto et al., 2024; Schiemer, 2024; Svejenova, Feuls & Stjerne, 2025). Simultaneously, research around the process of craft work (Bell & Vachhani, 2020; Gasparin & Neyland, 2022; Holt & Yamauchi, 2023; Yamauchi & Hjorth, 2024) have gained significant momentum in the field of management and organization studies.
 
The dialogue among the communities on temporality, craft and creativity has made important contributions to organization studies by, for instance, emphasizing a shared focus on materiality. For example, studies of craft and artistic work have expanded our understanding of how novelty is organized through social and bodily connections with ‘vital materiality’ (Bell & Vachhani, 2020; Lüthy & Steyaert, 2019). Meanwhile, studying collective creativity in the music studio as well as innovation processes in brewing and dairy production, temporality scholars uncovered how materiality ‘does’ time. These studies expand our understanding of how time is organized through objects and materials, as well as how different pasts and futures become present and help actualize creative potentials (Schiemer, 2024; Hernes, Feddersen & Schulz, 2021).
 
To continue and intensify the conversation between these three research communities, the EGOS Standing Working Group (SWG) 11 on “Time and Organization Studies: Navigating Change, Emergence & Complexity” invites colleagues to explore how weaving creativity, craft and time can go a long way in organization studies. Moreover, we see this also as an opportunity to connect old and new friends of the SWG already before its official launch in 2026 with sub-theme/SWG 11 on “Time and Organization Studies: Tracing and Crafting the Materiality of Time” at the 42nd EGOS Colloquium 2026.
 
In this PDW, we ask each participant to ‘bring’ their research project to the workshop as well as a personal object that represents a creative process, event and/or outcome to which they feel connected. Using both projects and creative objects as imaginative springboard and material tools to ‘noticing differently’ (see, for example, Simpson & Revsbaek, 2022), we will collectively explore how creativity and craft research can be further advanced with a temporal lens, and how our understanding of time and temporality can be expanded through studying creative processes and crafting.
 
Some exemplary questions to be reflected through the projects and objects could be:

  • How do different temporal structures (e.g., deadlines, cycles, unstructured time) impact creative processes and outcomes?

  • How do the temporalities of practices in craft and (collaborative) creativity, often involving slow deliberate processes and intense experiences of time, expand our conceptualization of time?

  • How does the integration of digital tools and automation alter the relationship between time, craft, and creativity?

  • How does materiality mediate the interplay between time, craft, and creativity, shaping processes, outcomes and narratives?

  • How does the organizational challenge of reconciling the deliberate, time-intensive nature of craftsmanship with the fast-paced demands of modern industries open up new research avenue for time scholars?

  • How do narratives about time (e.g., ‘timeless craftsmanships’ vs. ‘innovate fast or fail’) shape organizational identity and creative approaches?

  • What does research on craft and creativity teach us about the ‘ethics’ and ‘politics’ of time?

 

Format

The PDW is structured in three parts:

  1. Introduction: facilitators will share their personal objects and their reflections about how research in creativity, craft and time can be inspirational for one another.
  2. Group-sharing and discussion: participants will join a facilitator to discuss their research projects and personal objects. Personal objects can be a small painting, a knitted sweater, a photo portraying cooking, a piece of music recording, or a storytelling of an exhitibion experience. Only the sky is the limit here.
  3. Plenary exchange and collective learning.

 

Application

The PDW is open to scholars at any career stage who are interested in creativity, craft and/or time research. Doctoral students as well as junior and senior faculty are particularly encouraged to submit their ideas.
 
Interested participant should submit – via the EGOS website – by April 30, 2025 a single document of application (.docx or .pdf file) that includes the following information:

  • A short summary (0.5–1 page) of a current or future project that relates to research on creativity, craft and/or time and some of the theoretical and methodological struggles you have experienced. Please include full details of name, affiliation, and email address.

  • Indication of preference for facilitators.
     

References

  • Bell, E., & Vachhani, S.J. (2020): “Relational encounters and vital materiality in the practice of craft work.” Organization Studies, 41 (5), 681–701.
  • Feuls, M., Lüthy, C., & Svejenova, S. (2023): “Material Temporal Work in Artistic Innovation: How Hilma af Klint Powered Time.” In: F.-X. de Vaujany, R. Holt, & A. Grandazzi (eds.): Organization as Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 36–60.
  • Fortwengel, J., Schüßler, E., & Sydow, J. (2017): “Studying organizational creativity as process: Fluidity or duality?” Creativity and Innovation Management, 26 (1), 5–16.
  • Gasparin, M., & Neyland, D. (2022): “Organizing Tekhnē: Configuring processes and politics through craft.” Organization Studies, 43 (7), 1137–1160.
  • Hernes, T., Feddersen, J., & Schultz, M. (2021): “Material Temporality: How materiality ‘does’ time in food organizing.” Organization Studies, 42 (2), 351–371.
  • Holt, R., & Yamauchi, Y. (2023): “Ethics, Tradition and Temporality in Craft Work: The Case of Japanese Mingei.” Journal of Business Ethics, 188 (4), 827–843.
  • Hua, M., Harvey, S., & Rietzschel, E.F. (2022): “Unpacking ‘Ideas’ in Creative Work: A Multidisciplinary Review.” Academy of Management Annals, 16 (2), 621–656.
  • Lüthy, C., & Steyaert, C. (2019): “The onto-politics of entrepreneurial experimentation: rereading Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s understanding of ‘experimental systems’.” Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 31 (7–8), 652–668.
  • Mainemelis, C. (2002): “Time and timelessness: Creativity in (and out of) the temporal dimension.” Creativity Research Journal, 14 (2), 227–238.
  • Otto, B.D., Schüßler, E.S., Sydow, J., & Vogelgsang, L. (2024): “Finding Creativity in Predictability: Seizing Kairos in Chronos Through Temporal Work in Complex Innovation Processes.” Organization Science, 35 (5), 1795–1822.
  • Schiemer, B. (2024): “It’s About What Happens in the Meantime: The Temporal Interplay of Individual and Collective Creativity.” Organization Science, 35 (6), 2309–2332.
  • Simpson, B., & Revsbæk, L. (2022): Doing Process Research in Organizations: Noticing Differently. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Svejenova, S., Feuls, M., & Stjerne, I. (2025): “A temporal narrative view of social social innovations: How world central kitchen delivers food relief as ‘plate of hope’.” In: Big Picture Approaches to Social Innovations, in press.
  • Yamauchi, Y., & Hjorth, D. (2024): “Tradition, entrepreneurship, and innovation: The craft of Japanese fine dining.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 18 (4), 841–862.
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Christina Lüthy is a post-doctoral researcher and Browaldh Fellow at the Department of Business Administration at Lund University School of Economics and Management, Sweden. Her work has appeared in international book volumes and journals such as ‘Organization Studies’, ‘Entrepreneurship and Regional Development’ or ‘Human Relations’ (forthcoming). Her research is interested in the affective, material and temporal dimensions of creative organising, entrepreneurship and social change. In her recent research, Christina explores how feelings and intensities of time shape collaborative processes, how temporal structures move contagiously in organizational life and normative pacing demands foster gendered inclusion and exclusion in creative work.
Benjamin Schiemer is a cultural anthropologist, socio-economist, and organizational researcher at Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria. His research interests include creativity and innovation, digitalization, organizational anthropology, and ethnography. Currently, he investigates the role of temporality and materiality in creativity within musical contexts. Benjamin’s work has been published in leading journals such as ‘Organization Science’, ‘Organization Studies’, and ‘Organization.’ He also teaches organizational research theories and methods, with a particular focus on creativity and innovation.
Sunny Mosangzi Xu is a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Organization and the Centre for Organization and Time at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Her research explores the phenomenon of transforming established trajectories through the lens of spacetime, other- than-human materiality, and routines. In her ethnographic work, she has examined in depth the production of science in the university-industry collaboration process and the production of agri-food systems in the green transition, in which creativity and craft is essential. Sunny’s research has been published in outlets such as ‘Research in the Sociology of Organizations’ and ‘Project Management Journal’.