Meta-Organizations, Meta-Organizing and Grand Challenges (Part 2)

In recent years there has been much debate on the future of “organizational sociology”. Sociology has many sub-disciplines and most of them touch upon organizations – one way or the other. For example, medical sociology needs to deal with hospitals, care homes and medical schools whereas the sociology of sports accounts for the existence of associations, clubs and federations. What then, is the distinct contribution of organizational sociology to the organization of social life? What does organizational sociology have to offer to other areas of sociological investigation? The question becomes all the more relevant if we turn the gaze to “organization studies”, an interdisciplinary field encompassing all kinds of research and theorizing around organizations. Organizational sociology used to be one of the “parent” disciplines of this field and subsequently an integral part of it. But in the past two decades, the divide between organization scholars and sociologists has widened considerably. So much so, that it has become unclear what the sociological contribution to organization studies could possibly consist in. Against this background, the panel will offer a discussion on the relevance of organizational sociology, what it could and perhaps should offer, and what steps might be useful to take in the foreseeable future.