Justification, Evaluation and Critique in the Study of Organizations

Michael Lounsbury, University of Alberta, CanadaCharlotte Cloutier, Cass Business School, UKJean-Pascal Gond, Cass Business School, UK Bernard Leca, Essec Business School, France

• Justification, evaluation and critique in the study of organizations: An introduction to the volume; Charlotte Cloutier, Jean-Pascal Gond, Bernard Leca  Section 2 - MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL PLURALISM: HOW INDIVIDUALS NAVIGATE MORAL CONTRADICTIONS AND COMPROMISE: When orders of worth clash: Negotiating legitimacy in situations of moral multiplexity; Juliane Reinecke, Koen Van Bommel and Andre SpicerCo-operatives, compromises and critiques: What do French co-operators tell us about individual responses to pluralism?; Stéphane Jaumier, Thibault Daudigeos and Vassili Joannidès  Section 3 - LOOKING AT ORGANIZATIONS CRITICALLY: RHETORIC, JUSTIFICATION AND CRITICISM-AS-PRACTICE: 'Public' vs. 'natural' grammars: Complex domination in the financial intermediation industry; Benjamin Taupin and Marc LengletReproducing a neoliberal political regime: Competing justifications and dominance in disputing fracking; Daniel Nyberg, Christopher Wright and Jacqueline KirkCapital and carbon: The shifting common good justifications for energy regimes; Thomas Beamish and Nicole Woolsey Biggart Section 4 - RECONSIDERING VALUATION AND EVALUATION IN ORGANIZATIONS: Accounting Values, Controversies and Compromises in Tests of Worth; Marcia Annisette, Gillian Vesty and Thierry Amslem Commercializing academic knowledge in a business school: Orders of worth and trajectories of evaluation; Chantal Mailhot and Ann Langley  Section 5 - PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF PRAGMATIC SOCIOLOGY’S THEORETICAL AGENDA: An ecological justification? Conflicts in the development of nature; Claudette Lafaye and Laurent ThévenotThe passion of Luc Boltanski: The destiny of value, violence and love in institutional theory; Roger Friedland and Diane-Laure Arjaliès Remarks on the nature of justification: A socio-pragmatic perspective; Simon Susen For what it’s worth; David Stark

Scholars of business report on recent research and current thinking on the analysis of justification, evaluation, and critique in organizations as inspired by the foundational ideas of French Pragmatist Sociology's economics of worth framework. They cover managing organizational pluralism: how individuals navigate moral contradictions and compromise; looking at organizations critically: rhetoric, justification, and criticism-as-practice; reconsidering valuation and evaluation in organizations; and pushing the boundaries of pragmatic sociology's theoretical agenda.