Professur für Soziologie der Organisation und der Kultur

Organisational unit: Professoship

Organisation profile

The research field Sociology of Organization and Culture is dedicated to the interdependency of organization and culture. Organization is conditioned by culture. Forms and processes of organizing are based on cultural dispositions of experiencing, feeling, thinking and acting, and therefore on material, media-technological, spatial, and affective ordering modes and power relations. At the same time, the study of cultural practices and orders requires an organizational perspective. Culture is made manifest and changes on the level of organized and organizing interaction, cooperation and struggle.

Understanding organization through cultural theory (and culture through organization theory) thus denotes a broad approach to the ordering and disordering of the social. This approach is positioned in and at the margins of organizational and cultural sociology and the field of Organization Studies; and at the intersections with cultural theory, literary and media studies, art theory, human geography, and cultural anthropology.

The main research areas include:

  • old and new forms and processes of organizing art and culture
  • artistic engagements with, and reflections of, modes of organization (in literature, theatre, and the visual arts)
  • urban culture and organization: the spatial and urban constitution and contestation of organizational processes
  • the affective and atmospheric constitution of organization
  • colour as force and medium of organizing
  • the interdependency of organization and technology in and before the age of "digital cultures"
  • publics, counterpublics and politics of organizing
  • ethnographic, experimental and performative approaches to social and cultural research
  • the reorganization of university teaching and learning

Main research areas

Die kulturwissenschaftlich verstandene Organisationsforschung (bzw. die organisationstheoretisch verstandene Kulturwissenschaft) bezeichnet damit eine breit gefasste Herangehensweise an die Ordnung und Unordnung und an das alltägliche Geordnet-Werden des Sozialen. Sie arbeitet in und an den Rändern der Organisations- und Kultursoziologie sowie der internationalen Organization Studies; und an den Schnittstellen zu Kulturtheorie, Literatur- und Medienwissenschaft, Kunsttheorie, Humangeographie und Kulturanthropologie.

Die Schwerpunkte des Forschungsbereichs Soziologie der Organisation und der Kultur umfassen:

  • das Wechselverhältnis von Organisation und Medientechnik in und vor der Epoche „digitaler Kulturen“ und ihre gesellschaftlichen und politischen Konsequenzen
  • alte und neue Formen und Prozesse der Kunst- und Kulturorganisation sowie die künstlerische Bearbeitung und Reflexion von Organisationsweisen und Organisationskomplexen insb. in Literatur, Theater und bildender Kunst
  • die räumliche und städtische Konstitution und Umkämpftheit von Organisationsprozessen
  • die affektive und atmosphärische Konstitution und Kraft von Organisationsweisen
  • die Farbe als Kraft und Medium des Organisierens
  • alte und neue Ansätze ethnographischer, experimenteller und performativer Sozial- und Kulturforschung
  • die Reorganisation universitären Lehrens und Lernens, insb. hinsichtlich der Erkundung von Räumen und Atmosphären der Lehre
  1. Published

    Niklas Luhmann am OVG Lüneburg: Zur Entstehung der Systemtheorie

    Beyes, T. (Editor), Warnke, M. (Editor), Hagen, W. (Editor) & Pias, C. (Editor), 2021, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot GmbH. 136 p. (Soziologische Schriften (SOZS); vol. 86)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesCollected editions and anthologiesResearch

  2. Published

    Noticing Colour: Shades of a Chromatic Empiricism

    Beyes, T., 22.09.2022, Doing Process Research in Organizations: Noticing Differently. Simpson , B. & Revsbæk, L. (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 127-152 26 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearchpeer-review

  3. Published

    Novel Thought: Towards a Literary Study of Organization

    Beyes, T., Costas, J. & Ortmann, G., 01.12.2019, In: Organization Studies. 40, 12, p. 1787-1803 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  4. Published

    Novel thought: Towards a literary study of organization

    Beyes, T., Costas, J. & Ortmann, G., 01.12.2019, In: Organization Studies. 40, 12, p. 1787-1803 17 p.

    Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

  5. Published

    Organisation

    Beyes, T., 2017, Nach der Revolution: Ein Brevier digitaler Kulturen. Beyes, T., Metelmann, J. & Pias, C. (eds.). Berlin: Tempus Corporate GmbH, p. 127-137 11 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  6. Published

    Organisation

    Beyes, T., 2018, Der Kreativitätskomplex: Ein Vademecum der Gegenwartsgesellschaft. Beyes, T. & Metelmann, J. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 197-203 7 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  7. Published

    Organisation

    Beyes, T., 2017, Nach der Revolution: Ein Brevier digitaler Kulturen. Beyes, T., Metelmann, J. & Pias, C. (eds.). Berlin: Tempus Corporate GmbH, p. 128-137 10 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  8. Published

    Organization

    Beyes, T. & Metelmann, J., 09.10.2018, The Creativity Complex: A Companion to Contemporary Culture. Beyes, T. & Mentelmann, J. (eds.). Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, p. 177-183 7 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksContributions to collected editions/anthologiesResearch

  9. Published

    Organization

    Beyes, T., 2021, Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data. Thylstrup, N. B., Agostinho, D., Ring, A., D'Ignazio, C. & Veel, K. (eds.). Cambridge: The MIT Press, p. 369 - 376 8 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/worksChapterpeer-review

  10. Published

    Organization: The Critical Journal of Organization, Theory and Society

    Beverungen, A. (Editor), Beyes, T. (Editor) & Conrad, L. (Editor), 09.2019, London: SAGE Publications Inc. 127 p. (Organization; vol. 26, no. 5)

    Research output: Books and anthologiesSpecial Journal issueResearch