In the first instalment of our new podcast series, Professor Martin Parker (University of Leicester) discusses what happens when a form of knowledge moves to another part of the university. Identifying himself as an 'ex-sociologist', Martin considers the trajectory of those sociologists, such as himself, who entered business schools and the importance of this 'sociological diaspora' for the future of the discipline. Though the project of Critical Management Studies (CMS) has proved influential within the business school, he is gloomy about the future prospects for critical scholarship within such an environment. The project of CMS was deeply shaped by the estrangement of sociologists within business schools but this experiential feature is in sharp decline because the institutionalisation of management is producing young scholars who may use sociological literature and make sociological arguments but have never seen themselves as sociologists. In this sense, the case study of sociologists within the business school poses important questions about the institutional structuring of social scientific knowledge which sociologists have tended to neglect in recent years.

Further Reading:
Parker, M. (2014), Between sociology and the business school: critical studies of work, employment and organization in the UK. The Sociological Review. doi: 10.1111/1467-954X.12166

Between Sociology and the Business School

The Sociological Review

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