You are warmly invited to a seminar with Richard Swedberg.
Richard Swedberg is professor emeritus at Cornell University and currently guest professor at the Centrum for Organizational Research (SCORE) at Stockholm University. He has written widely in the field of Economic Sociology and Social Theory.
More info: https://sociology.cornell.edu/richard-swedberg
Abstract
This paper was intended to be a study of Robert K. Merton’s contribution to organization theory; and the general idea was to use a transcript of about 100 pages from his seminar “Selected Problems in the Theory of Organization” (1955-56, 1956-57). When I read through the material, however, it turned out to mainly be about something else than organizations, namely how to learn how to generate theories by closely studying a suitable text, in this case an article by Georg Simmel. It also turned out that Merton was of the opinion that this type of theorizing capacity could only be taught through a seminar – something that made me look into the institution of the seminar. It turned out that the seminar was invented in the early 1800s and has a strong egalitarian dimension: students sit around a table and are not being lectured to, but instead treated as equals by the professor. The paper raises the question if we can create seminars today that live up to this ambition. It also draws attention to the importance of the unofficial culture in academic institutions, which is so important for learning but is typically not written down and therefore forgotten (such as lectures, conversations, seminars and more).
The seminar will be held in English and send through zoom. Employees at the department will get the link by e-mail. If you want to participate and are not employed - send an e-mail to paolo.velasquez@umu.se