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The intellectual trajectory of a central figure in contemporary organisation theory – Gareth Morgan – is identified and assessed through a detailed analysis of his published work over the last decade.

Economics and political philosophy tend to lead separate existences in separate university departments. This paper argues that there are gains to be had in the understanding of the teaching of economics if the intellectual divide between these disciplines is bridged. The history of economic thought owes its evolution in part to responses at particular points in time to the enduring questions of political philosophy. A more deep‐seated understanding of economics and of HET is therefore available if considered in conscious alliance with the history of political philosophy (HPP). In short, the argument of this paper ‐ which considers five dimensions of the interdependence of HET and HPP ‐ is the reverse of Scott Gordon’s conclusion that economists have little or nothing to learn from philosophers.

Methodological pluralism in consumer research is usually confined to post‐positivist interpretive approaches. Argues, however, that a positivistic stance, radical behaviourism, can enrich epistemological debate among researchers with the recognition of radical behaviourism′s ultimate reliance on interpretation as well as science. Although radical behaviourist explanation was initially founded on Machian positivism, its account of complex social behaviours such as purchase and consumption is necessarily interpretive, inviting comparison with the hermeneutical approaches currently emerging in consumer research. Radical behaviourist interpretation attributes meaning to behaviour by identifying its environmental determinants, especially the learning history of the individual in relation to the consequences similar prior behaviour has effected. The nature of such interpretation is demonstrated for purchase and consumption responses by means of a critique of radical behaviourism as applied to complex human activity. In the process, develops and applies a framework for radical behaviourist interpretation of purchase and consumption to four operant equifinality classes of consumer behaviour: accomplishment, pleasure, accumulation and maintenance. Some epistemological implications of this framework, the behavioural perspective model (BPM) of purchase and consumption, are discussed in the context of the relativity and incommensurability of research paradigms. Finally, evaluates the interpretive approach, particularly in terms of its relevance to the nature and understanding of managerial marketing.

Research into information retrieval (IR) cannot yet answer the basic question of how we can design IR systems to help people search for information with optimal levels of effectiveness. In relation to human‐system interaction, we have failed to develop any valid and at the same time robust user models capable of driving practical system development. If we strip away assumptions and over‐optimism relating to the generalisability of what are essentially sporadic and fragmented research efforts, the great “darkness to light” ratio characterising our knowledge of human aspects of IR becomes apparent. From a more critical and pessimistic (but by no means less realistic) perspective, we are getting nowhere fast. A range of strategies is proposed to improve the situation by supporting relatively “horizontal” as well as “vertical” knowledge integration. These consist of: greater use of pluralistic research approaches; enhanced access to research data; more multidisciplinary and multi‐perspective integrative reviews and conceptual mappings; and establishing a greater critical mass of published research findings sufficient to support the generation of a less sparse and fragmented evidence‐based knowledge map. The potential of electronic publishing and data access for helping achieve these goals is discussed.

This paper discusses my perceived positionality in an ethnographic research project on the contentious issue of female circumcision in Southwest Cameroon. My bicultural identity as a Western‐trained, African anthropologist is associated with power because of my perceived alliance with the ‘Whiteman’ (western, rational, scientific knowledge) showing how the anti‐female circumcision campaigns based on discursive practices of mortality and the harmful health effect paradigm have backlashed, suggesting the need to re‐evaluate and be aware of power dynamics between practicing and nonpracticing societies in the construction of the diverse reality of female circumcision. The ritual practice should rather be seen as opened to both rationalisation and modernisation, suggesting that there can be a synergy between local and global, rational science.

The philosophical position known as critical realism is briefly introduced, and some of its central features are used to connect the philosophy and the realist social theory to some current library and information science (LIS) models of information behaviour.

The paper uses a literature‐based analysis of the critical realism concepts of a stratified social reality, the importance of contextualisation, and the relation between structure and agency. These features are discussed in relation to various models of information‐seeking behaviour, but also to the “interpretative” approach to information as meaning which can only be achieved through discourses in a human community.

The critical realism perspective could lay a fruitful foundation for an interdisciplinary research field like LIS, and its user studies in particular, concerned with many levels of information creation, seeking, use and processing. It is the task of the LIS researcher to explain the mechanisms that influence the information seeking, not only on an empirical level, by observing the user and his/her discourse community, but also by revealing possible underlying causes and relations.

An awareness of the fact that social and cultural structures exist independent of one's knowledge of them has implications on how many central problems in the LIS field are regarded and studied.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how archivists, records managers and scholarly literature in the field(s) analyse how “participation” is discussed in the context of archives and records management, and to explore practical and theoretical implications of the disclosed discursive practices.

The analysis is based on a discourse analysis of a body of archival literature and a sample of posts collected from the archival and records management blogosphere.

The analysis shows that instead of discussing one notion of participation, the archival science literature is referring to nine different and partly conflicting types of participation from three broad perspectives: management, empowerment and technology. The discourses have also conflicting ideas of the role of engagement and enthusiasm, and of that what do the different stakeholder communities see as real options.

The analysed material consists of a limited sample of mainly English language texts that may not capture all the nuances of how participation is discussed in the archival literature.

A better understanding of how different claims of the benefits and threats endorsing “participation” in archives helps to develop effective and less contradictory forms of collaboration between different stakeholders.

In spite of the popularity of the notion of “participation”, there little, especially critical, research on how participation is conceptualised by archives professionals and researchers.

The contribution is focussed on the question of which logic and which distinctive lines of development have shaped the discourse on urban crime prevention and will probably shape it in the future.

Comparing the line of development in thinking about urban crime prevention: starting with the approaches of the rational choice theory and of architectural determinism that were integrated in the practical approach of crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). Looking on the continuation in the recent past: aspects of social cohesion and disorganization in the neighbourhood – represented by the collective efficacy – were integrated with the traditional lines of argumentation. Continuing to the present, the actor network theory opens up advanced perspectives of the integration and development of urban crime prevention.

Comparison of the approaches of the rational choice theory and of architectural determinism. Their combination in the practical approach of CPTED. Integration of these lines of argumentation with aspects of social cohesion and disorganization in the neighbourhood represented by the collective efficacy and the absorption in the concept of second-generation CPTED in the recent past. Opening up for advanced perspectives of the integration and development of urban crime prevention by the actor network theory.

The process analysis by linking the rational choice theory, the architectural determinism, the collective efficacy theory and the actor network theory to a continuous development represents an innovative perspective on the discourse on urban crime prevention.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contributions of the so-called “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies through the attempt by Cummings et al. (2016) to offer a new and alternative approach to teaching and researching the history of management ideas. A New History of Management is intended to be a provocation rather than a practical plan, and by their own admission, Cummings et al. (2016) prefer controversy to detailed analysis.

This paper offers a comment and reinterpretation of a single contribution to highlight deficiencies which are symptomatic of the post-modernist research agenda around the “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies. The argument develops through a critical reading of Cummings et al. (2016) to determine whether theirs is a thoughtful and serious piece of work.

Cummings et al. (2016) invite us to revise and re-evaluate the genesis of management ideas available across textbooks. This by questioning some of the beliefs regarding the origins of management thought within textbooks aimed at both general management and the history of management thought. The premise of Cummings and colleagues is a timely and welcomed suggestion. So is their attempt to broaden the debate to alternative epistemological positions. They can potentially help to improve the emergence of conceptual and theoretical understandings of the history of managers’, business and management thought. Although far from being exhaustive, the paper points to the large number of inconsistencies and poor historiography in Cummings et al. (2016). This is in line with other contributions to the so-called “Historic Turn” in Organization Studies. The central argument presented by this paper is the myopic and technically poor approach of the “Historic Turn”. It is the case that Cummings et al. (2016) fail in their attempt to offer an alternative to established textbooks or explain the development of different approaches to construct systematic studies that, over time, consider the evolution of management, managers and those who have conceptualized their performance.

This paper does not present new (archival) historical evidence.

The central contribution/ambition of this paper is to incentivize an advance of the current understanding of the origins and evolution of systematic thinking on management, managers and business organizations. The ambition of this paper is in line with Cummings et al. (2016) aim to incentivize research into how textbooks address the origins of management and management thought. Textbooks in both general management and the history of management thought, and the story told in them are important tools that speak directly to the ability of historical research to help advance the different disciplines that form general studies in business and management.

The article examines how social scientific information is discursively utilized as an argumentative and rhetorical resource at debates held during plenary sessions at the Finnish parliament. The authors analyze the speeches given by members of parliament by using the methodological perspective of constructionist discourse analysis. It is found out that the objectivity and authority of social scientific information in parliamentary discussion can be undermined by using at least four types of arguments stressing (1) contradictions, (2) politicization of information, (3) uncertainty of information and (4) the inability of scientific knowledge to solve value conflicts. The speakers utilize social scientific information instrumentally to solve a certain social problem defined in advance, to provide statistical evidence, to show a causal relationship, or to justify an individual argument. However, social scientific information can also be used conceptually to bring larger perspectives to conversation or to reveal unnoticed aspects of the problem under discussion. Social scientific information often penetrates the symbolic definition struggles under way, and in this respect it alters social reality. In conclusions, the serious difficulties built into the professional position of librarians as providers of neutral facts are considered.