Introduction: History in Organisation Studies

This article introduces a series of studies on history in organization studies. The appeal for greater engagement with history has, for the most part, come as a reaction to the largely historical character that organization studies gained during its development as a separate discipline in the second half of the twentieth century. This has turned out to be the case despite the fact that, in looking back to its roots, the study of organizations can claim a heritage that has been attentive to historical influences. The turn away from history can and has been attributed to the scientific slant that has come to dominate the field since the 1960s, particularly in North America. With such detachment, organization studies has remained aloof to the around the connections of history to social science. The essay by Clark and Rowlinson is a full expose of one of the major strands of what we have labeled above as the reorientationist position. These authors explicitly call for a historic turn as part of a broader transformation in the study of organizations. Clark and Rowlinson specify their call by arguing that the turn would or should entail, first, a move away from conceptualizing organizational studies as a branch of the science of society.

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