LOST Workshop 2025: "Organizing in Times of Crisis"

22.09.2025 In our 14th LOST workshop, we discussed what it means to organize in times of crisis. How can we understand crisis as a concept? What does it do to organizing and organizations?

We are grateful to everyone who joined us for our LOST Workshop on “Organizing in Times of Crisis”.

Across the workshop sessions, we engaged with rich theoretical, practical, and ethical questions around researching extreme contexts, conceptualizations of crisis, ontologies, and qualitative methods.

Highlights included inspiring keynotes by Anja Danner-Schröder  on extreme contexts research and Kevin Corley  on qualitative methods in crisis. We also explored pressing issues such as, for example, the climate crisis, geopolitical crises, and the crisis of democracy in roundtables that connected scholars interested in these phenomena.

A heartfelt thank-you to our organizers, Elke Schüßler, Matthias Wenzel, and Lena Kostuj for making this event possible, and to all session chairs and participants who contributed to the lively discussions.

We look forward to continuing these conversations with you!

TopicsDate & Time
 Pre-Program: Writing RetreatSeptember 22          10.00–17.00  

Session 1: Introduction & Keynote by Anja Danner-Schröder: Organizing in Times of Crisis

Session Chairs: Elke Schüßler & Matthias Wenzel

September 23          09.00–11.00
Coffee Break                               11.00–11.30

Session 2: Crisis – What Crisis?

Session Chair: Iris Seidemann

                                11.30–13.00
Lunch Break                               13.00–14.00

Session 3: Ontologies for a World in Crisis

Session Chair: Markus Reihlen

                                14.00–15.30
Coffee Break                               15.30–16.00

Session 4: Keynote by Kevin Corley: Qualitative Methods in Crisis?

Session Chair: Sarah Stanske

                                16.00–17.30
 Joint Workshop Dinner in Lüneburg19.00

Session 5: Project Development Roundtables – Researching Crisis Phenomena

Session Chair: Elke Schüßler & Matthias Wenzel

September 24        09.30–11.00
Coffee Break                               11.00–11.30

Session 6: Higher Education in Crisis?

Session Chair: Stefanie Habersang

                               11.30–13.00
Lunch                               13.00–14.00
Farewell