Purpose of the Seminar Series
In 2026, we launched a monthly online seminar series on societal governance to support the development of research ideas and papers. Our central goal is to equip our field with the conceptual and methodological foundation to study societal governance in the face of polycrisis from an international and comparative perspective, and to do that by engaging (1) the variety of perspectives in our organization studies field, (2) perspectives from adjacent disciplines such as public management, public policy, political science, and comparative social sciences, and (3) perspectives from the major regions of the world.
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Seminar Series Organizers
- Zlatko Bodrožić, University of Liverpool
- Paul S. Adler, University of Southern California
- Alfred Tat-Kei Ho, City University of Hong Kong
- Nicole Ning Liu, City University of Hong Kong
Seminar Format
Seminars are held on the first Friday of each month and last one hour. They take place at 13:00 UK / 08:00 US Eastern / 20:00 Hong Kong (21:00 Hong Kong in winter). Guest speakers and chairing rotate across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Schedule
Seminar Series #1 Comparative Organization Theory and Societal Governance ▶
Speaker: Jerry Davis
Affiliation: University of Michigan
Date & Time:
May 8th, 2026, 8:00am-9:00am, ET
May 8th, 2026, 1:00pm-2:00pm, UK
May 8th, 2026, 8:00pm-9:00pm, China
Abstract
Organizations vary widely around the world. Even firms in the same industry, creating essentially similar products or services, can look very different in their ownership, their size, their central aims and power structures, where they place their boundaries, and how they balance their commitments to different stakeholders. For example, half of the world's carbon emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel companies -- with 17 of the 20 biggest owned by governments. Any approach to societal governance must build in an understanding of the connections between public policy and the shape of business in different countries, as must any efforts at large-scale reform. I propose 'institutional terroir' as a metaphor and a set of directives to think about how national institutions shape firms.
Background Readings
Seminar Series #2 The Advanced European States in the Polycrisis: External Challenges of Autocracy and Technology; Internal Challenges of Polarisation, Populism and Governance ▶
Speaker: David Soskice
Date & Time:
June 5th, 2026, 8:00am-9:00am, ET
June 5th, 2026, 1:00pm-2:00pm, UK
June 5th, 2026, 8:00pm-9:00pm, China
Abstract
The intense phase of the digital technological revolution built up through the 2010s and which we are very much still in, dominated by the US and now by China, and echoed in the advanced economies of Europe, has deeply polarised all these very differently organised societies; apart from China (?), political entrepreneurs have leveraged polarisation into radical right parties in the US and most of advanced Europe. In advanced Europe this has weakened national governments in terms of their capacity to make credible long-term agreements with other governments and/or between and within political parties. In turn the EU only functions with great difficulty, and can seldom push the radical policies needed to meet (as well as rapidly respond to) the external challenges of autocracy and leading-edge technology. States are further polarised between the high value-added and innovation-oriented (Superstar metro city) Clusters in which most important activities take place, and the ‘Places that Don’t Matter’; but the governance of Clusters generally plays no part in national politics. In addition contemporary corporate governance systems operate very differently across Clusters, even between Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, very sharply between the UK and France; even more so the role of unions, key in the Nordics and Germanic Clusters, barely seriously in France and the UK; and in both areas the US. So where to go from here? We look seriously at Draghi’s 2-speed Europe, at his proposal for borrowing an annual amount of €1tn to finance radical construction of innovation systems, and we argue the high-powered incentive structures which it makes possible in reshaping the complex governance structures of the advanced European systems, while retaining the many core elements which cannot be changed.
Short Bio
Taught econometrics and macroeconomics at Oxford 1967 to 1990, with many visiting spells teaching in the Berkeley Economics department. Research Director, Political Economy dept, WZB, 1990 to 2001. Research Prof Duke Pol Sci dept and Nuffield College, Oxford 2001 to 2010 (split appointment). 2001 to 2021, LSE School Professor for Political Science and Economics. Visiting professor Harvard (Govt), Yale (Pol Sci), Cornell (IR), St Anna Pisa (Econ). Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; President of European Political Science Association (2011-3). Chair, Oxf Univ Labour Club 1963; Adviser to Michael Meacher, Labour Shadow Minister of Employment; member of Blair Policy Unit 1998-9, responsibilities for HE.
Recent publications
- Macroeconomics: Institutions, Instability and Inequality, with Wendy Carlin (Oxford University Press, 2024)
- “The American Knowledge Economy,” in Jacob Hacker, Alexander Hertel, Paul Pierson and Kathleen Thelen (eds), American Political Economy (Oxford University Press, 2022)
- Tracing the Relationship between Inequality, Crime and Punishment: Space, Time and Politics, Nicola Lacey, David Soskice, Leo Cheliotis, Sappho Xenakis (eds), Proceedings of the British Academy, Volume 130 (Oxford University Press, 2021)
- Democracy and Prosperity: Reinventing Capitalism Through a Turbulent Century, with Torben Iversen (Princeton University Press, 2020)
Seminar Series #3 ▶
Seminar Series #4 ▶
Speaker: Ruth Aguilera
Affiliation:
Date & Time:
Abstract
Seminar Series #5 ▶
Speaker: Sigrid Quack
Affiliation:
Date & Time:
Abstract
Videos Repository
- Seminar 1 – [Watch]
- Seminar 2 – [Watch]