Call for Abstracts
International Conference on Organizational Sociology
ICOS 2026

Plurality, Diversity and Social Inequality in Organizations

March 16/17, 2026
University of Potsdam, Germany 

Joint conference by:

• Research Committee 17 “Sociology of Organizations” of the International Sociological Association
• Section for Organizational Sociology of the German Sociological Association
• Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Potsdam
• DFG-Network “Modes of organizational diversity: theories, methodologies and practices “
• “Organization & Society” Research Group, at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, NTNU Trondheim

Submission Deadline for abstracts (600-1200 words, excl. references): November 10, 2025

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 addressing rapid and gradual, superficial and profound organizational changes, as well as organizational resistance to expectations of change, in the following three themes:

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Organizations
• Sustainability Transitions, Climate Action & Organizational Responsibility
• Digitalization, Generative AI & Organizing

ICOS has a special “themed but not siloed” format – featuring multiple themes without rigid boundaries. Session hopping is encouraged! 

All information can be found under www.icos2026.org

Call for Abstracts
International Conference on Organizational Sociology
ICOS 2025

Organizing Plurality

March 27/28, 2025
Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg, Germany

Submission Deadline for abstracts (1-2 pages): November 30, 2024

Joint conference by:

1. Section on Organizational Sociology of the German Sociological Association www.organisations-soziologie.de

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

3. Research Cluster OPAL (Organisation, Personal, Arbeit, Leadership) at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg www.hsu-hh.de/orgasoz/en/ | www.hsu-hh.de/opal/

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

In modern society, organizations typically face a myriad of expectations from numerous groups, individuals, and systems. These expectations come from various societal domains, ranging from the micro to the macro level and from the local to the global. They include moral, political, and environmental concerns, as well as macro-level values and norms attributable to different “value spheres” (Weber 2009), “institutional logics” (Friedland & Alford 1991), “orders of worth” (Boltanski & Thévenot 2006), “function systems” (Luhmann 2012), and “organizational fields” (DiMaggio & Powell 1983), among others.

Many of these expectations tend to be competing or contradictory, and accordingly, scholars have observed that heterogeneous demands often lead to conflict (e.g., Battilana & Dorado 2010; Berkowitz & Grothe-Hammer 2022; Pache & Santos 2013; Valentinov & Roth 2022; Gluch & Hellsvik 2023). Nevertheless, organizations are usually quite successful in handling these demands on a daily basis (McPherson & Sauder 2013; Besio & Meyer 2014; Matinheiki et. al. 2019). Moreover, organizations not only cope with these societal demands, but also play a crucial role in shaping and implementing them. However, we still know relatively little about the impact of these internal organizational solutions on broader societal contexts and how they contribute to shaping such societal trends (Apelt et al. 2017).

We invite papers that address questions revolving around the role and relevance of organizations in addressing the challenges of an increasingly plural society. The conference will feature the following four broad themes:

·         Organizations and Valuation

·         Organizations and Sustainability

·         Organizations and Digitalization

·         Organizations and Governance

Organizing Committee:
Nadine Arnold (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
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)
Kurt Rachlitz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway)

Please consider the “Journal of Organizational Sociology“:
Michael Grothe-Hammer
Associate Professor in Sociology (Organization & Technology)
Head of the “Organization & Society” Research Group
Department of Sociology and Political Science
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Web: https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/michael.grothe-hammer