Ismael Al-Amoudi

Biography

I worked as a management consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in the early 2000s, before doing a PhD in Cambridge (2002-06) and joining academia. After my thesis, I worked as Associate Professor at the University of Reading (UK), Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Ontology (EPFL, Switzerland) and Reader at Cardiff Business School (UK). I have also been active with the Occupy movement that purports to limit the contemporary excesses of capitalism.

I am open to PhD projects that consider the effects of contemporary organisations on society and that are anchored in the social sciences and humanities.

My research studies how social norms are established or contested, with particular attention being drawn to the practices of corporations. How come certain practices are seen as 'natural' and 'acceptable' whereas others raise concern and resistance? And what are the effects of normative changes on people's power and sense of identity?

I tackle these questions from a perspective that mixes philosophical questioning and ethnographic participant observation. My interest in normativity has brought me to study (and publish) in the fields of business ethics; management learning; organisational studies and social theory.

Education

PhD, University of Cambridge, 2007
ESCP Europe, Paris, 2000

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

I am interested in social theory and critical management studies. I study social phenomena of significance for human flourishing. My analysis usually combines ethnographic exploration, ontological questioning and ethical discussion. Recent projects include: - empirical studies on normativity, relationality and violence. - socio-philosophical reflections on Late Modernity and intensified social change. - socio-philosophical reflections on post-human society, incl. artificial intelligence.

Journal publications include research articles in: Academy of Management Learning and Education; British Journal of Sociology; Business Ethics Quarterly; Cambridge Journal of Economics; Human Relations; Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour; Organization; Organization Studies.

Recent publications: https://en.grenoble-em.com/directory/ismael-al-amoudi

Personal Interests

Public affairs, novels, philosophy, science-fiction, contemporary art, ancestral practices.
Movies: Akira Kurozawa; Ken Loach; David Lynch; Quentin Tarantino.
Tai Chi Chuan (instructor) and hiking.

Books