Adam Smith Business School

The Human Resource Management & Organisational Behaviour Research Cluster hosted scholars from Australia and Scotland as part of a Bourdieu symposium at Adam Smith Business School on 11 January 2018.

The event, co-organised by Dr Sarah Robinson and Professor Sabina Siebert, brought together organisation scholars who are applying Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts and theories to their work across the broad spectrum of areas.

Papers included:

• ‘Using Bourdieu to explore sideways voice in healthcare’ presented by Professor Lucy Taksa and Dr Senia Kalfa, Macquarie University
• 'The Bias Against Understanding: Cultural wars in BBC News and Current Affairs Directorate, 1987 - 2000' presented by Professor Chris Carter, University of Edinburgh (co-written with Professor Crawford Spence and Professor Alan McKinlay)
• ‘Habitus, Field, and Practice in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems’ presented by Dr Ben Spigel, University of Edinburgh (pictured above)
• 'Towards a theoretical understanding of the role of social and economic agents in field development: the genesis and growth of English wine production' presented by Dr Sarah Robinson, University of Glasgow, and Dr Ron Kerr, University of Edinburgh (co-written with Dr Elke Weik)

The papers spurred a lively discussion of the synergies between the diverse papers, as well as the methodological and theoretical benefits and challenges of applying Bourdieu’s work within organisation studies.

Due to the success of this event, the HRM & OB cluster are planning to hold a two day international symposium on using Bourdieu to study organisations in January 2019. Interested parties are asked to email Dr Robinson at Sarah.Robinson.2@glasgow.ac.uk for further details.

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Enquiries: Jenna McCulloch, business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 22 January 2018