Projects

Post Doc Project by Elo Reiss
1.1.2025 Great Minds Fellowship, Basic Research Fund of HSG University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

This research project entitled “Collective Organization of Resistance through Queering Spatial Practices” (QueerSpace) inquires how collective resistance emerges from queering spatial practices in creative industries. In the last decades, queer perspectives and inquiries of resistance have received increasing attention in studies of organizations and organizing. However, research on the organization of resistance through queer collective practice is rare. QueerSpace therefore raises the research question: "How does collective resistance emerge from queering spatial practices in creative industries?". The study builds on theories of resistance, space, and affect and draws on qualitative ethnographic data collected with queer collectives in the creative industries of Zurich and Vienna. Investigations include different kinds of queer collectives (drag performance collectives, queer music collectives, and queer contemporary art collectives) in the two cities, highlighting the role of the urban space context and the collectives’ embeddedness in the different art scenes. Focusing on organizational forces of resistance, QueerSpace emphasizes collectives that dedicate themselves to challenge dominant norms of gender and sexuality by creating spaces of resistance in which minority experiences are validated. In investigating these spaces, the study applies an affective ethnographic approach and draws on queer affective methodologies to investigate how affect becomes communal as it emerges from collective encounters in the form of atmospheres with organizational forces. By studying queering spatial practices through an affect-theoretical lens, QueerSpace contributes to existing research on the organization of resistance with a queer perspective and insights into the collective aspect of organizing resistance.

PhD project by Jonas Friedrich

Work becomes ever more geographically distributed and new demands for less hierarchical organizing and workplace participation are omnipresent for enterprises today. This research project on ‘Democratic Organizing and Co-Entrepreneuring - Chances and Vices to prefigure Socio-Ecological Economies’ seek to understand how participatory and democratic practices in enterprises can support the grand challenges of our time; from fostering inclusion, justice, and emancipation to averting climate change and populisms. Empirically this research project has the chance to collect a variety of data with deep ethnographic entanglements in an extreme case study of a  creative sector agency in central Europe that is co-owned and co-led. Theoretically, the project seeks to build a relationship between alternative organizing and social, emancipatory entrepreneuring and critical and affirmative perspectives by relying on feminist and queer theory and relational ethical perspectives. Further, the project seeks to contribute to theories of self-organization, agile and democratic work in the context of the gig economy and the social and ecological crises.

 

References:

Ferreras, I., Battilana, J., & Méda, D. (Eds.). (2022). Democratize work: The case for reorganizing the economy. University of Chicago Press.

Adler, P. S. (2016). Alternative economic futures: A research agenda for progressive management scholarship. Academy of Management perspectives, 30(2), 123-128.

Calás, M. B., Smircich, L., & Bourne, K. A. (2009). Extending the boundaries: Reframing “entrepreneurship as social change” through feminist perspectives. Academy of Management Review, 34(3), 552-569.

Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2008). Diverse economies: performative practices for 'other worlds'. Progress in human geography, 32(5), 613-632.    

Fraser, N. (2016). Contradictions of capital and care.

Hjorth, D., Holt, R., & Steyaert, C. (2015). Entrepreneurship and process studies. International Small Business Journal, 33(6), 599-611.

jonas.friedrichunisg.ch

 

Research stay at CBS

PhD Project by Tina Rosenfeld

Advisory boards currently play a central role in the survival of startups by facilitating mentoring, networking, and a legitimizing platform for raising capital. One of their most crucial roles is that of validating the startup and its founders towards potential investors. While the importance of advisory boards is well studied, advisory board practices are still considered “black boxes” by the literature (Weber, 2017). Additionally, recent research shows that women face disadvantages when trying to finance their companies (Kanze et al., 2020, 2017; Balachandra et al., 2019). Gendered practices and finance decisions that occur within advisory boards have not yet been studied in depth. To study the internal processes and practice of advisory boards, I am participating closely with a group of advisory boards in the Chilean startup context as an observing participant using practice theory as a theory and methodology. 

My ethnographic study aims to answer the following research question “How do advisory boards develop over time as an organizational practice?" particularly with regards to intertwined and counter acting gendered and financing practices. Access to the field will be achieved through my active participation in the Chilean startup ecosystem as both a mentor and investor. 
 

References

Balachandra, L., Briggs, T., Eddleston, K., & Brush, C. (2019). Don’t Pitch Like a Girl!: How Gender Stereotypes Influence Investor Decisions. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 43(1), 116–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/1042258717728028

Balachandra, L., Fischer, K., & Brush, C. (2021). Do (women’s) words matter? The influence of gendered language in entrepreneurial pitching. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 15, e00224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2021.e00224

Kanze, D., Huang, L., Conley, M. A., & Higgins, E. T. (2018). We Ask Men to Win and Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding. Academy of Management Journal, 61(2), 586–614. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2016.1215}

Weber, E. (2017). Advisory boards in startups: Investigating the roles of Advisory Boards in German technology-based startups. Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

tina.rosenfeldstudent.unisg.ch

 

north