Organization Studies and Posthumanism Towards a More-than-Human World

General introduction: Too-human? Inquiring in-between different disciplinary areas in managing and organizing

Silvia Gherardi, François-Xavier de Vaujany, and Polyana Silva

Part I: Contextualizing the debate in a more-than-human world

1.1   We are the missing people: On posthumanist onto-epistemologies in organization studies

Linda Tallberg and Astrid Huopalainen

1.2   Entrepreneuring as multispecies composting

Boukje Cnossen, Orla Byrne, Paul Lassalle, Neil A. Thompson, Karen Verduijn, and Huriye Yeröz

1.3 From legitimation to alegitimation: Inviting posthuman and prehuman ontologies into theories of institutions

François-Xavier de Vaujany and Stewart Clegg

1.4   Posthumanism as a system of codifying events

Xavier Deroy

Part II: Posthumanism in the world of management and organizing

2.1. Mapping the posthumanist conversations in Organization Studies

Polyana Silva

2.2. How practice theory participates in critical posthumanist conversations

Silvia Gherardi

2.3 Posthumanism and sociomaterial organizing: The case of Superbergamo’s aid practices during the Covid-19 pandemic

Laura Lucia Parolin and Carmen Pellegrinelli

2.4 Between action and deliberation: Contributions of a posthumanist practice theory approach

Marine De Ridder, Charlotte Durieux, and Anne Rousseau

2.5 Deleuzoguattarian cartographies of work and organizing in the human–robotic workplace

Angelo Gasparre and Luca Pareschi

Part III: Posthumanism: History or becoming?

3.1 Monsters and myths: Transhuman temporal narratives and mind/body problems

Carlos Montemayor

3.2 Lacan’s challenge to posthumanism: The ethical case for speaking subjects

Edouard Pignot and Mark Thompson

3.3 Edith Stein’s realms amid posthumanism’s evolving landscape: Conversations on the subject of "Subjectivity"

Gabriel J. Costello

3.4 From expertise to encounter: Repopulating the inquiry for worldly healing

Mireille Mercier-Roy, Chantale Mailhot, and Emmanuel Bonnet

General conclusion: The paradoxical invitation of posthumanism to organization studies: Between processuality and criticality

François-Xavier de Vaujany, Silvia Gherardi, and Polyana Silva

Biography

François-Xavier de Vaujany is full professor of Organization Studies at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL and researcher within DRM. His research deals with the political and societal dimensions of (new) ways of organizing work and their management. He is particularly interested in the time-space of contemporary digital organization of work. Post-phenomenologies and process philosophy are key perspectives of his research emphasizing the apocalyptic process of digital management and organization.

Silvia Gherardi is senior professor of sociology of organization at the University of Trento (Italy), where she founded the Research Unit on Communication, Organizational Learning, and Aesthetics (www.unitn.it/rucola). She is also professor II at the School of Business, Society and Engineering, Mӓlardalens University (Sweden). She received the degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa" from Roskilde University (2005), East Finland University (2010) and St Andrews University (2014). Her research interests include feminist new materialism, entrepreneurship, epistemology of practice, and postqualitative methodologies in organization studies.

Polyana Silva is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Sao Paulo, where she is conducting research on the enmeshed aspects of life in a digitalized and virtualized worlds. Her particular areas of interest include virtual worlds, virtual beings, and metaverse projects, which she approaches from a posthumanist perspective. She has been part of organizing committees of research-oriented events such as the Chaire France-Brésil USP, a Chaire devoted to "Digitality and Management: Presence, Time and Space"; and the Organizations, Artifacts & Practices (OAP) Workshop. She is a member of the research groups “Public Sector Accounting and Governance in Brazil (PSAG)” and Meta:lab – Metaverse Laboratory for Research and Innovation.