Symposium on Radical Business

Radical Business?

SYMPOSIUM, 28 June 2019

Radical Business? Business and the Contest over Social Norms

Lecture Theatre, Weston Library 9 am to 4:30 pm

RSVP: janet.walwyn@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Conveners: David Chan Smith and Rowena Olegario

This one-day symposium at the Weston Library brings together an interdisciplinary group of speakers to offer insights into how business has acted as a radical force to upset and replace social norms over time. Whether seeking to normalize new products and services, such as autonomous vehicles, or reacting to environmental or safety concerns, business is engaged in a constant negotiation with larger cultural codes. Speakers will discuss the consequences of this contest over social norms, including ethical as well as strategic implications. By bringing together researchers from across disciplines, the symposium will also explore common conceptual ground to understand the significance of this problem for the history of capitalism and management.

All are welcome to attend, but please RSVP.

David Smith is Associate Professor, Department of History, Wilfrid Laurier University, and is the Royal Bank of Canada-Bodleian Visiting Fellow at the Bodleian Libraries during Trinity Term 2019.

Presented in association with the Oxford Centre for Global History, Global History of Capitalism project, Faculty of History, University of Oxford

Confirmed speakers:

Aled Davies, University of Oxford Stephanie Decker, Aston University Neil Forbes, Coventry University James Hollis, University of Oxford Mary Johnstone-Louise, University of Oxford Alan Morrison, University of Oxford Anne Murphy, University of Hertfordshire Adam Nix, De Montfort University Will Pettigrew, University of Lancaster David Chan Smith, Wilfrid Laurier University Heidi Tworek, University of British Columbia Michael Weatherburn, Imperial College London Lola Wilhelm, University of Oxford