Abstract
When searching for a name for the new section of Organization Studies that we are launching today, we could not avoid thinking of ancient Greece, with its tradition of debates happening in public – the agora. We have already outlined in our recent Editorial (vol. 42, issue 9) how we conceive of Organization Studies as a space for voicing concerns and doubts, for debates, a space where knowledge emerges from dissonance, from dialogues with present and past colleagues, within and outside the journal. Our Agora section aims to spark such debate on the most pressing issues of our time. Issues that are highly relevant for our work as organizational scholars, because they will inspire and shape what will be published in our field in two years from now; issues that cannot await the standard process leading to the publication of a regular research article, because they require our immediate attention.
The Greek tradition of debates was facilitated by technological innovations, such as the development of acoustics, which informed the construction of Greek amphitheatres. These innovations did not only allow a larger group of people to partake in the debate, they also amplified scrutiny thanks to the design of the theatre that allowed sound waves to reach further distances and therefore more people. Academic journals are also undergoing substantial changes because of institutional and technological innovations. As much as the invention of the printing press changed the nature of authorship and authors’ authority, the pressures for publishing and the opportunities through other media than academic books or journals will equally change the nature of our debates, their style of argument, their speed, and the understanding of what is relevant. Organization Studies is part of an ecology of media and actors that contribute to define the meaning of our academic work and identity. These are changes to which we are subject, but we equally influence their trajectory, while at the same time safeguarding our mission as an academic journal aimed at publishing research of the highest scientific standard. This is the spirit with which we have launched the new Organization Studies YouTube channel (thanks to the limitless effort of our Sophia Tzagaraki). This is the spirit with which we are thinking of new initiatives that will make Organization Studies reach wider and different audiences, as we all wish to have our voice heard and our research read (and not only cited) and to make more decent the way in which we cohabit in organizations and societies.
Our Agora wants to open a space for such debates to happen and to happen quickly. There are many current and pressing issues that we as organizational scholars need to bring to the fore and within which we need to position ourselves, in order to set research agendas and assess the relevance of our work, including the governance of our own field, what we mean by relevance and impact, or how we treat each other. It is not by chance, that the first contributor to this section is Ziyad Marar, President of Global Publishing at SAGE, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in the UK. At SAGE, Ziyad, along with Kiren Shoman, has been a close friend and active supporter of Organization Studies for over a decade. In the first Agora piece, he offers a view from a privileged observatory, where intellectual matters (our ends) have to be balanced with the mechanisms that make such matters relevant (the means) in an institutional environment which is, today as ever, in a continuous state of flux. He alerts us that the social sciences need to find their own voice, and quickly, in an impact debate that is predominantly shaped by the workings and needs of the natural sciences. We could not think of a better author to discuss issues of impact, its definition and measurement, to open a debate on what we can collectively do to influence the counting of what counts.
With the ancient Greek spirit in mind, Agora will host short contributions (no more than 2,000 words, including references) from academics and other actors that are relevant for organizational scholarship. Interventions on the Agora section will be single authored. They may also be double authored, meaning that two contributors converse on a big issue of our times. Please get in touch with us to propose your ideas.