The communicative constitution of academic fields in the digital age: The case of CSR
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In: Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 146, 01.09.2019, p. 517-533.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - The communicative constitution of academic fields in the digital age
T2 - The case of CSR
AU - Wenzel, Matthias
AU - Will, Matthias Georg
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Although the digital transformation of knowledge production has put communication front and center in the production and recreation of academic fields, research on scientific communities still mostly promotes an actor-centric or institutionalist understanding of academic fields. This, we argue, points to the need for a digital transformation of our understanding of academic fields, one that does justice to the important role of communication in the production and recreation of academic fields. Therefore, in this paper, we draw on the “communicative constitution of organizations” (CCO) view to explore how academic fields are communicatively constituted. Our GABEK-based discourse analysis focuses on the communicative constitution of the academic field of corporate social responsibility. Our findings illustrate how academic fields are constituted through the enactment of three communicative practices: embedding, diverging, and converging. Furthermore, our results indicate how the communicative constitution of academic fields occurs through the sequential enactment of these practices. Our theoretical framework extends the literatures on scientific communities and CCO by beginning to develop a communication view of academic fields. These ideas also have implications for the digital transformation of social theory more generally.
AB - Although the digital transformation of knowledge production has put communication front and center in the production and recreation of academic fields, research on scientific communities still mostly promotes an actor-centric or institutionalist understanding of academic fields. This, we argue, points to the need for a digital transformation of our understanding of academic fields, one that does justice to the important role of communication in the production and recreation of academic fields. Therefore, in this paper, we draw on the “communicative constitution of organizations” (CCO) view to explore how academic fields are communicatively constituted. Our GABEK-based discourse analysis focuses on the communicative constitution of the academic field of corporate social responsibility. Our findings illustrate how academic fields are constituted through the enactment of three communicative practices: embedding, diverging, and converging. Furthermore, our results indicate how the communicative constitution of academic fields occurs through the sequential enactment of these practices. Our theoretical framework extends the literatures on scientific communities and CCO by beginning to develop a communication view of academic fields. These ideas also have implications for the digital transformation of social theory more generally.
KW - Academic fields
KW - Communicative constitution of organizations
KW - Corporate social responsibility
KW - Digital transformation
KW - GABEK
KW - Practice theory
KW - Scientific communities
KW - Management studies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066409886&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.techfore.2019.05.006
DO - 10.1016/j.techfore.2019.05.006
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85066409886
VL - 146
SP - 517
EP - 533
JO - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
JF - Technological Forecasting and Social Change
SN - 0040-1625
ER -