PLURALITY, DIVERSITY AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY (ICOS)

16/17 March 2026 | Potsdam, Germany

Organizations are confronted with a plurality of rapidly changing challenges to which they respond in various ways. Among these challenges are the organizational governance of claims for the recognition of group identities and differences, issues of sustainability, climate action, organizational responsibility, and the challenges posed by digitalization and generative AI. These processes of rapid change do not occur simultaneously across the world; they often begin in some countries or regions and are taken up elsewhere only after several years. When organizations adapt to such newly emerging challenges, their responses may remain superficial, or organizational changes may take so long that trends and socio-political discourses in the organizational environment shift before the changes are fully implemented. We call for papers that address rapid and gradual, superficial and profound organizational changes, as well as organizational resistance to expectations of change.

Organizing Committee:
Maja Apelt, University of Potsdam, Germany
Nadine Arnold, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
Cristina Besio, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, Germany
Michael Grothe-Hammer, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Marco Jöstingmeier, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, Germany
Uli Meyer, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Ines Michalowski, University of Münster, Germany
Kurt Rachlitz, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

Joint Conference by:
Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam
https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/wiso/faculty/overview-of-the-faculty-of-economics-and-social-sciences 

Section for Organizational Sociology of the German Sociological Association
https://organisations-soziologie.de/english/

Research Committee 17 “Sociology of Organizations” of the International Sociological Association
www.organizational-sociology.com

DFG-Network “Modes of organizational diversity: theories, methodologies and practices“
https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/691274.html

“Organization & Society” Research Group at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU Trondheim
www.ntnu.edu/web/iss/organization-and-society