Research Team

Project Objectives Historiography in management and organization studies

Actor-network theory; Critical Sensemaking and ANTi-History

Sociology of Management Knowledge Network (SMK-N)Reassembling Canadian Management Knowledge: Dispersion, Equity, Identity and History

Management theorizing and (the Canadian) context

The overall objective of this study is to gain a greater understanding of how management knowledge inCanada is developed and the implications for:

I. Management education and the diversification and dissemination of ideas

II. Gender equityIII. Canadian identity and history in management

theorizing

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Micro processes of knowledge production

Feminist theories of the gendering of knowledge

How do certain forms of (management) knowledge become gendered (i.e., favour masculinity over femininity; maleness over femaleness, etc.)? By understanding some key processes through which knowledge comes to privilege masculinity over femininity, we can identity more profound ways of addressing discriminatory practices.

How do certain forms of (management) knowledge develop? Through greater understanding of the process we are better placed to understand, encourage and disseminate diverse ideas or forms of knowledge.

How is knowledge of the past created and how doesthis shape our understanding of management and organizational history (in Canada)? Here we areinterested in examining the processes through which a history (or histories) of Canadian managementthought is lacking and where US management thought appears to dominate Canadian managementtheorizing.

This research takes a postpositivist approach that combines actor-network theory, poststructuralist feminist theory, and an approach to the study of history and the past, ANTi-History, that draws on the sociology of knowledge, poststructuralist historiography and actor network theory that is closer to cultural theory than history per se. This research draws on insights from sociology, gender studies/feminism, and cultural theory/new historicism. Albert J. Mills (Principal Investigator) Saint Mary’s University

Jean Helms Mills (co-investigator) Saint Mary’s UniversityGabrielle Durepos (co-investigator) St. Frances Xavier UniversityAmy Thurlow (co-investigator) Mount Saint Vincent UniversityTerrence Weatherbee (co-investigator) Acadia UniversityPatricia McLaren (co-investigator) Wilfrid Laurier UniversityKristene Coller (PhD student) Saint Mary’s University

L-R Gabrielle Durepos, Terrance Weatherbee, Amy Thurlow, Jean Helms Mills, Albert Mills, Kristene Coller, Patricia McLaren