Dr. Fabian Maier
Courses
This module provides students a deep-dive into contemporary and selected issues in management in the digital age. It explores the impact of digital technologies on organizations, industries, societies and the natural environment. The module is inter- and transdisciplinary, drawing on theories and concepts from management and organisation studies, sociology, critical theory, political ecology, and ecological economics. It is designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and to help students develop the skills, knowledge and ethics they need to manage effectively in the digital age.
The digital world and its rapid acceleration of automation and artificial intelligence promises new growth opportunities for businesses, politicians and nation states. At the same time this growth necessitates unforeseen amounts of natural resources while disrupting social contracts underpinning employment relations and social security. Below the surface of debates about the potentials and challenges of the digital world thus lie the social and ecological limits of technology and innovation-driven economic systems geared towards endless growth. This module aims to offer a critical understanding of organisation and management in an age characterised by the rapid growth of digital technologies and economic activity more broadly, while providing a platform to explore, debate, and engage with creative solutions to social, economic, technological and political change. In particular, this module aims to deepen knowledge of socio-ecological change with a focus on the contradictions between pursuing perpetual economic growth, social justice and environmental sustainability, and how they may be overcome through alternative forms of organizing economic and social life through postgrowth ideas.
The digital world and its rapid acceleration of automation and artificial intelligence promises new growth opportunities for businesses, politicians and nation states. At the same time this growth necessitates unforeseen amounts of natural resources while disrupting social contracts underpinning employment relations and social security. Below the surface of debates about the potentials and challenges of the digital world thus lie the social and ecological limits of technology and innovation-driven economic systems geared towards endless growth. This module aims to offer a critical understanding of organisation and management in an age characterised by the rapid growth of digital technologies and economic activity more broadly, while providing a platform to explore, debate, and engage with creative solutions to social, economic, technological and political change. In particular, this module aims to deepen knowledge of socio-ecological change with a focus on the contradictions between pursuing perpetual economic growth, social justice and environmental sustainability, and how they may be overcome through alternative forms of organizing economic and social life through postgrowth ideas.
This course offers students a basic introduction to qualitative research methods. In this tutorial, students come together at Leuphana and discuss the online lecture's content in more detail. The students will conduct their qualitative research projects, and we will have time to answer questions and look at published studies as examples of how to conduct qualitative research.
A primary goal of this tutorial is advancing students' research projects, which will make up 70% of the final grade. The research projects are group based projects of about three students. The students will conduct their qualitative study and present interim results within this tutorial (30% of final grade).
Thematically, this course centres around the phenomena of alternative forms of organisation. Research on alternative organisations has flourished over the last five decades (Parker et al. 20214; Vijay et al. 2025). Debates span widely across what sets alternative organisations apart from more mainstream organisations, what they may constitute an alternative to, how people in alternative organisations imagine and enact alternative futures, the challenges they face in organising from within a contested system, as well as the contingent processes through which they reproduce their alternativity (Alakavuklar 2024; Dahlman et al. 2022; Schiller-Merkens 2024; Shanahan 2024; Vijay et al. 2025). In this course, students will be exposed to a selection of these debates while exploring alternative organisations of their choice, with the aim to shape their analytical view on the practices, processes, conflicts, and interrelations of alternative organisations with wider social, economic, and ecological systems.
A primary goal of this tutorial is advancing students' research projects, which will make up 70% of the final grade. The research projects are group based projects of about three students. The students will conduct their qualitative study and present interim results within this tutorial (30% of final grade).
Thematically, this course centres around the phenomena of alternative forms of organisation. Research on alternative organisations has flourished over the last five decades (Parker et al. 20214; Vijay et al. 2025). Debates span widely across what sets alternative organisations apart from more mainstream organisations, what they may constitute an alternative to, how people in alternative organisations imagine and enact alternative futures, the challenges they face in organising from within a contested system, as well as the contingent processes through which they reproduce their alternativity (Alakavuklar 2024; Dahlman et al. 2022; Schiller-Merkens 2024; Shanahan 2024; Vijay et al. 2025). In this course, students will be exposed to a selection of these debates while exploring alternative organisations of their choice, with the aim to shape their analytical view on the practices, processes, conflicts, and interrelations of alternative organisations with wider social, economic, and ecological systems.