Reading seminar in Critical Management Studies

LDSM3531 - Reading Seminar in Critical Management Studies
5 ECTS
Profs. Julie Hermans, Amélie Jacquemin, Maxence Postaire, Laurent Taskin
Academic year 2025-2026

Main objectives

The reading seminar aims primarily to introduce Critical Management Studies (CMS) and assist doctoral students in the construction and development of their doctoral research—especially in its critical stance. It provides a collective discussion and proposals around five core propositions of CMS: De-naturalization, Anti-performativity, Reflexivity, Challenging Structures of Domination, Multidisciplinary Research. Our intention is to better equip doctoral students in terms of methods and theoretical assumptions by discussing their own research design at the prism of the five core propositions.

The five core propositions of CMS

1. De-naturalization: CMS challenges the assumption that current management practices are natural or inevitable. It problematizes the idea that social and organizational behaviors are fixed, asserting that they are contingent and shaped by struggles over power and resources. CMS aims to reveal the precarious nature of these practices.

2. Anti-performativity: CMS critiques the mainstream focus on performativity, which prioritizes efficiency and profitability over ethical or political concerns. It argues that people and organizational processes should not be solely evaluated based on their contribution to business performance, advocating for a broader understanding of the value of work and management.

3. Reflexivity: CMS emphasizes the need for scholars and researchers to be aware of how their own contexts and power structures influence their work. Reflexivity involves recognizing that no research or organizational account is neutral, challenging the objectivism and scientism of mainstream management research.

4. Challenging Structures of Domination: CMS is committed to exposing how knowledge and power are intertwined. It seeks to reveal how supposedly neutral forms of knowledge often reinforce existing power relations, thereby perpetuating domination. CMS promotes the idea that such knowledge is not immutable but subject to contestation and change.

5. Multidisciplinary Research: CMS encourages breaking down disciplinary silos and engaging in dialogues across fields. It believes that critical understanding is enriched by integrating diverse perspectives, fostering deeper questioning of taken-for-granted assumptions in management studies.

The seminar will broaden the perspective and pose topical issues on management research. With the aid of critical theories, the seminar will help participants to understand how environmental and social concerns are framed, and how the roles of actors in the CMS agenda are defined.From this point of view, each doctoral student should personally benefit from participating in this collective activity: direct benefit from the work done in relation to the five core propositions; indirect reflection on the themes of other researchers (mutual awareness). The reading seminar is therefore presented as a living interaction between researchers, participating in a community of knowledge. The community explicitly includes the doctoral researchers enrolled in the course, the visiting scholars that will be invited as experts for each of the five core propositions, as well as the academic coordinators.

Content and time frame

The doctoral course consists of 5 three-hour thematic sessions. For this second edition of the seminar, we will have the privilege of welcoming esteemed scholars renowned internationally for their expertise and work in CMS. They will present recent research or books they have published.

Learning method

For each session, participants should read the articles mentioned for the session and prepare their contribution to the workshop. This preparation requires writing a summary of the readings associated with the topic (2 pages max.). It should highlight the key insights from the articles and identify clarification points (questions on the content and the meaning assigned by the author), discussion points (in relation to their own understanding, and to other texts) and preliminary take-aways (in relation to their own research design).

After each session, participants are invited to reflect on the take-aways for their own research and to write max. 2 pages about what they have learned, why it is important for them as researchers, and what they would like to change in their research design or in the future by applying those take-aways. A final 2-pages synthesis of the five reflexive pieces, together with a reflection on the interconnectedness of the five propositions and implications for their own doctoral research, should finalize the work of the participant for this doctoral course.

Evaluation methods and criteria

1) Active participation in seminar sessions (50 %, individual)

2) Construction of a portfolio that documents the work done in relation with the doctoral course (50%, individual): a) the preparation before each session (summary 2 pages max),

b) the key learnings after each session (2 pages max per session)

c) a final synthesis about key learnings (2 pages max)

Registration 

Workshop : Advertising and Self-Promotion through Images in the Digital Era: Impacts on Consumers

Overview 

The ETIC (EffecTs of digital Images on Consumers) project focuses on the negative influences of digital advertising and promotional images on people. lndividuals are analyzed in a dual perspective; as consumers of images on screens, as well as disseminators of images on social media. The aim is to study the consequences of marketing strategies (the attractive and distracting power of images, personification, repeated exposure) on cognitive costs and psychological defense mechanisms, problematic behaviors, negative emotions, and other psychological disorders. The originality of the project lies in the analysis of the similarities and differences in strategies between marketing professionals, and internet users who engage in self-promotion on social media. The purpose of the ETIC project is to define recommendations for reducing these negative effects, in particular through awareness-raising initiatives.  This conference addresses two aspects: the impact on consumers of multiple exposure to advertising images, and the impact on consumers of exposure to self-promotional images posted on social media. 

Registration

Informal research seminar by Selenia Anastasia and Chloé Faton

Beyond Competences: An Axiological Perspective on Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education

Sélénia Anastasia, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Amélie Jacquemin, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations

Summary

In the context of socio-ecological transition, education is increasingly expected to move beyond a purely competence-based approach and support forms of engagement grounded in values. While sustainable entrepreneurship education acknowledges the importance of values, little is known about how they emerge and are mobilized in educational experiences, especially among younger learners. This article examines how values are mobilized in primary school sustainable entrepreneurship projects and how educational situations may contribute to their self-formation. The study articulates Nathalie Heinich’s axiological sociology, which examines how actors mobilize plural registers of value in context, with Hans Joas’s processual perspective on how values may be formed and transformed through experience. Empirically, it is based on a multi-case ethnographic study conducted in 2023–2024 in four primary school classes in Brussels (ages 10–12) involved in projects linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. Data include observations, interviews with pupils and teachers, pupils’ reflective journals, and pedagogical materials. The findings show that values emerge through recurring pedagogical configurations: encounters with socio-ecological realities, reflective and narrative practices, collective project materialization, and forms of engagement extending beyond school. These situations activate and articulate affective, ethical, civic, hermeneutic, and other value registers, while in some cases supporting processes of self-formation. The article thus shifts attention from competencies alone to the axiological dynamics through which sustainable entrepreneurial engagement takes shape from primary school onward.

Keywords: Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education, Early Childhood, Axiological Approach

Resonance Work : How Sustainable Entrepreneurs Shape the Shift from Niche to Norm

Chloé Faton, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations

Summary

Hybrid organizations, which combine market and social or environmental logics, face unique legitimacy challenges as they attempt to scale beyond niche markets and influence broader industry norms. A key mechanism to build legitimacy is framing. While prior research has examined how hybrid ventures achieve distinctiveness and coherence in their framing strategies, the resonance dimension - the degree to which a venture's framing aligns with the values and expectations of diverse audiences - remains underexplored. This is particularly important when hybrid ventures transition from niche innovation to industry norm, as frames that resonate with mission-aligned supporters may simultaneously alienate mainstream actors such as regulators, incumbents, and policymakers. Drawing on institutional theory and literatures on hybrid organizations and entrepreneurial framing, this study asks: how do hybrid entrepreneurs work on the resonance of their frames in their transition from niche innovation to industry norm? We address this question through a longitudinal qualitative study of Green Buildings, a Belgian sustainable construction venture founded in 2020. Between 2021 and 2025, we conducted 31 semi-structured interviews with co-founders, niche partners, domain experts, and industry actors. Using the Gioia method combined with temporal bracketing, we trace how resonance work unfolds over time and across audiences, within a shifting institutional context. Our findings offer two main contributions. First, we show that resonance work extends beyond tailoring frames to heterogeneous audiences, it also involves actively enabling partner agency to act on perceived alignment. When such agency is absent, particularly during periods of institutional uncertainty, the legitimacy process linking framing to resource access breaks down. Second, our temporal analysis identifies two distinct resonance work pathways - value-based and expectation-based - each with different relationships to institutions, agency, and resource mobilization. Together, these pathways illuminate the strategic tensions hybrid ventures navigate as they pursue transformative impact while managing the risk of audience alienation.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial framing, Resonance, Hybrid Venture, Legitimacy

Informal research seminar by Marco Daprà

Cooperation beyond Institutions. The Case of the Lodi Model.

Marco M. Daprà, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Desirée Del Chiaro, Independent Researcher Pursey Heugens, Rotterdam School of Management 

Summary 

Institutions underpin the taken-for-granted norms and belief systems that enable cooperation in everyday organizational life. However, what fosters cooperation when institutional frameworks collapse remains insufficiently understood while sustaining cooperation is essential to forming new normative frameworks. This is particularly true in extreme contexts where collective action toward a shared goal becomes imperative. This study investigates these dynamics through an in-depth empirical analysis of Lodi Hospital, the first healthcare institution in the Western world to confront the COVID-19 emergency. Our findings reveal that a shared commitment to an overarching interpretive framework and persistent ethics of care were foundational to enabling cooperation and facilitating a broader organizational paradigm shift. We contribute to the literature on institutional collapse and extreme contexts by showing (1) that cooperation can precede and underpin the reconstruction of institutional norms and (2) that institutional collapse and emergence are heterogeneous processes across institutional orders. 

Keywords: Crisis Management, Institutional Theory 

Informal research seminar by Valentine Brognion

Grasping the In-Between: A Dimensional Typology of Interstitial Episodes

Valentine Brognion, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations
Guilhem Bascle, Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations

Summary

This conceptual paper explores the micro-spatial configurations of interstitial episodes and their transformative potential at the individual level. Interstitial space is characterized by a place and time of interaction where individuals from different domains interact occasionally and informally around shared activities to which they dedicate a limited amount of time (Furnari, 2014, p. 439). We consider interstitial space at the scale of the interstitial episode, that is, a bounded exposure (time) generating recurring and differentiated interaction patterns specific to a meeting venue (place). Our analysis thus focuses on the micro-spatial description of how exposure to interstitial spaces supports cognitive and relational shifts at the individual level. We broaden the scope of interstitial spaces by developing a dimensional typology that presents systematic variations in the ability of interstitial episodes to cultivate change at the individual level.

Keywords: interstitial space, interstitial episode, spatial affordance, third places, change 

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