Several members and others related to the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society (NCIS) had their research presented at the event.
How can we design workplaces that promote imagination and wellbeing? How can organizations reconcile profit-making with the wellbeing of their communities? How can legacy promote imagination, innovation, and competitive advantage? These were some of the questions asked at this year's European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) 2023, as the theme of the conference was “Organizing for the Good Life: Between Legacy and Imagination”. The event was held in Cagliari, an Italian city located on the island of Sardinia. Several members and others related to the Nordic Centre for Internet and Society (NCIS) had their research presented at the event.
Papers presented at the event
Dicle Berfin Köse presented the paper “Beyond dualism: The duality of work and play in information systems” (co-authored with Jeffrey K. Mullins), where they discuss today’s social media by applying a dialectical inquiry. Social media increasingly blur hedonic and utilitarian boundaries with their ever present, feature rich, and flexible nature. However, this merging creates both positive and negative effects in individuals’ and collectives’ lives. Accordingly, they frame social media in a duality perspective and present the tensions inherent in this duality. To resolve these tensions, they provide organizing principles, which can guide individuals and organizations to manage social media and their relations with them in a more harmonious and virtuous manner.
Victor Renza presented the paper “Artistic Tinkering and Creative Modes of Approaching Opaque Artificial Intelligence” (co-authored with Christian Fieseler and Ana Alacovska), which aims to explore the often opaque nature of algorithmic systems through artistic tinkering with machine learning technology. The paper presents the results of several interviews and observational work of artists who engage with AI in creative, and often subversive experiments, which can contribute to complementing more conventional approaches of explaining AI and the technology behind it.
Christoph Lutz presented the paper "External Perceptions of the Digital Economy: Occupational Social Value and Occupational Prestige" (co-authored with Gemma Newlands from the Oxford Internet Institute). The presentation featured in-depth results of a large-scale survey study in the United Kingdom that assesses the occupational prestige and occupational social value of 76 digital economy occupations such as social media travel influencer, online freelance therapist, cryptocurrency miner, app-based ride-hail driver, machine learning programmer, online pornographic content creator, artificial intelligence trainer. Many of these occupations have low occupational social value, indicating a certain stigma of working in the digital economy.
NCIS affiliate Madeleine Meurer nominated for award
In addition to these presentations, NCIS affiliate Madeleine Meurer was nominated for The Grigor McClelland Doctoral Dissertation Award at EGOS for her research conducted for her Ph.D, and she received second place. The award is a prestigious award for dissertations in the field of management research. It is supported by the renowned Journal of Management Studies (JMS) and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), with the aim of promoting and recognizing groundbreaking research in the field.
All the presentations were well received, and the event provided many rich discussions and informative presentations.
Thank you to EGOS for hosting a successful event!