Return to Meaning A Social Science with Something to Say

Mats Alvesson, Professor, Lund University,Yiannis Gabriel, Professor of Organizational Theory, University of Bath,Roland Paulsen, Assistant Professor, Lund University

Mats Alvesson works at Lund University, Sweden and also at University of Queensland, Brisbane and City University, London. He is interested in critical theory, qualitative method, and organization studies. He has published about 30 books, including The Stupidity Paradox (Profile, with A Spicer), Managerial Lives (Cambridge University Press, with & S Sveningsson), Reflexive Leadership (Sage, with M Blom & S Sveningsson) and Reflexive Methodology (Sage, with J Skoldberg) and The Triumph of Emptiness (Oxford University Press).

Yiannis Gabriel is Professor of Organizational Theory at Bath University. Yiannis is known for his work into organizational storytelling and narratives, leadership, management learning and the culture, and politics of contemporary consumption. He has used stories as a way of studying numerous social and organizational phenomena including leader-follower relations, group dynamics and fantasies, nostalgia, insults and apologies. Another area of his work has been dedicated to developing a psychoanalytic approach to the study of organizations. He is Senior Editor of Organization Studies and author of nine books. His enduring fascination as a researcher lies in what he describes as the unmanageable qualities of life in and out of organizations.


Roland Paulsen is Assistant Professor at the Department of Business Administration, Lund University. He is the author of three books including Empty Labor: Idleness and Workplace Resistance (Cambridge University Press) where he addresses the mystery of why some employees can be very idle at work whereas others suffer from stress and work intensification. He has also studied and written about the Swedish workfare system.

Part One
1. The Problem: So Much Noise, So Little to Say
2. From Science as a Vocation to Science as a Game - and the Resulting Loss of Meaning
3. Institutions Encouraging Competition, Instrumentalism, and Meaningless Research
4. Researchers Making Sense of Meaningless Research
5. Methodologies and Writings that turn into Black Holes of Meaning
Part Two
6. Recovering Meaning by Reforming Academic Identities and Practices
7. Recovering Meaning by Reforming Organizations and Institutions
8. Recovering Meaning through Policy Changes
9. Conclusion