The ‘History of the Present”: indigenous management knowledge with Professor Stephen Cummings

A small community of scholars have sought to question and change the conventional history of management and its homogenous focus on white, male, Anglo-American, individuals and institutions.

In 2017, a book called A New History of Management argued the case for making management and business history more diverse and much less ‘pale, male and stale’. There was, however, a certain irony in the four authors of that book being white, middle-class, middle-aged men. One of those authors, Professor Stephen Cummings has been interested in exploring what needs to happen next to move the diversity agenda forward.

The seminar, held at Birmingham Business School on 11 April brought forward these ideas and discussed developments in Critical Management Studies, Management History, the Decolonizing the Curriculum movement, the growing community of Indigenous Management scholars gathering around IARIMOS (the new Indigenous Academy of Research into Management and Organization Studies), and a new book project Indigenous Management: Knowledges & Frameworks (with Jesse Pirini and Ana Maria Peredo).

This seminar series is in partnership with the BBS Decolonisation Project, a three-year project to build on our Inclusivity pledge and to embed a culture of responsible business and inclusive values into our teaching, learning and research.

Read more about the Business History through the looking glass of [De]colonisation seminar series