The 16th edition of the Philosophy of Management Annual Conference will be held in Oxford, UK at the EM Normandie Oxford Campus, on 21-24 June 2024.
As usual, it guarantees a 45-minute slot for each paper, for an unhurried presentation and in-depth discussion.
Saturday Keynote: Joanne Ciulla
Sunday Keynote: Roger Crisp and Chris Cowton
General track
We welcome submissions that explore all angles of management in private or public organizations through a philosophical lens: e.g., applied ethics; social, moral and political philosophy; ontology; epistemology; axiology; aesthetics. In any of these areas, we encourage scholars to propose novel, critical, timely and/or controversial arguments. Submissions can also adopt a ‘meta-’ standpoint for raising and answering questions such as “What is philosophy of management?” “Is philosophy useful for managers?” “Is management a science or an art?” “Can management be part of the humanities and, if not, what else should it be part of?”
Special tracks
The Conference is associated with the journal Philosophy of Management and, in addition to the general track, will host two special tracks for papers aiming to be submitted after the conference to one of the incoming special issues of this journal. If submitting for one of these special tracks, please mention it in the title of your paper.
Special Track: Rethinking Leadership
Most of the academic work on leadership is conducted by social scientists, who frequently lament the lack of an agreed-upon definition of their subject matter and who often complain about conceptual confusions. Philosophers are in a position to make meaningful contributions to the conceptual clarification of leadership and its related notions. Here are some suggested areas of conceptual and normative inquiry. Is it possible to define the concept of leadership as employed by practitioners and scholars? How are we to understand the traditional lineup of “leadership theories”—are they about the same thing, and are they actually competitors? In what sense is the concept of “distributed” or shared leadership to be considered to be leadership at all, if everyone has the same level of influence and responsibility? Is leadership essentially normative, given that guiding a group in just any direction—as effectively as you like—does not alone seem to be a sufficient criterion of good leadership? What can social ontology tell us about leadership, given that the notion of leadership is so embedded in other social constructed ideas, such as organizations, resources, directions, rights, and responsibilities? Is leadership an appropriate topic for scientific inquiry? What can we learn from philosophers who have directly addressed leadership, such as Confucius, Laozi, Kautilya, Plato, Seneca, or Machiavelli?
Special Track: The AI Awakening
The Center for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety recently released a statement that “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war”. The statement was signed and endorsed by prominent figures within the AI community, including executives from OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic, in addition to researchers across the globe. Unsurprisingly, the fear of extinction has caught the attention of media worldwide, painting the emergence of AI as an “existential threat”. Indeed, AI poses an immediate danger to our relationship with the world, our place in it, and the values we constitute. One glaring illustration of this is the exploitation of our personal data for profit maximization, often at the cost of our autonomy, human agency, and democratic foundations. At the same time, AI can also be considered a progressive technology which promotes plurality, empowers citizens, and serves the public good. This brings us to an opportune moment to delve into the philosophical aspects surrounding the management of AI and contemplate the roles that both private enterprises and governments can and ought to assume in this evolving landscape.
This special track delves into fundamental questions surrounding the management of AI, its implications, and its place in the broader context of human existence. We welcome submissions focusing on ethical, political, and social dilemmas concerning the development and deployment of AI systems, including issues related to privacy, bias, and the impact of automation on society. We also invite scholars to engage with the topic from diverse non-normative perspectives, such as epistemology, ontology, and aesthetics. This philosophical inquiry does not only seek to understand the limitations and possibilities of AI but also challenges us to reflect on the nature of our own humanity in a world increasingly intertwined with this technology.
For more details, please visit the conference website: https://en.em-normandie.com/
