Event Details

Professor Simon Lilley from University of Lincoln will present this OWT research seminar. This seminar is hybrid and available via Teams (Meeting ID: 390 707 908 499 Passcode: nX6XAr ) and f2f in LUMS WP B007.

Abstract:

Global commodity capitalism necessitates the fast and efficient movement of all manner of entities across the globe. Importantly, this commercial flow needs to be secured against the undocumented and unregulated flow of illegitimate people, finance and information, counterfeits, drugs, terror and other undesirables. The organizational practices of business logistics are central for achieving this objective. Yet they have received little attention in management and organization studies to date. We suggest a fruitful avenue is via Foucault’s notion of ‘biopower’ – particularly his less discussed concept (in management studies, at least) of an apparatus of security. This is useful for understanding the emergent organizational/management practices of security in the border spaces in which business logistics operate. If ‘Society Must Be Defended’, as Foucault ironically notes in his famous lecture series that introduces biopower, then so too must contemporary organizations and their net-like activities within the global economy.

Simon Lilley is Professor of Organisational Studies and Management and Director of Research at Lincoln International Business School, University of Lincoln. He has previously taught at the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Keele, Lancaster, Leicester, the University for Humanist Studies, Utrecht and the International Business School, Budapest. His research interests include Organization Studies, Social Studies of Science and Technology, Social Studies of Finance and Digitalization. His work has appeared in a range of leading journals including the British Journal of Management, Sociology, Sociological Review, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Organization Studies and the Journal of Management Studies. [Email: slilley@lincoln.ac.uk]