HIMO research topics
A research narrative built as a triptych.
Three self-contained inquiries—together forming one storyline: how managerial ideas emerge in crisis, scale through institutions, and shape the ways we experience the past and imagine futures.
Institutions • learned societies • geopolitics of knowledge
Project 1
The networks of management in times of war and crisis.
This project traces the emergence of an American science of administration and management from the early 20th century to today, focusing on learned societies (SAM, AMA, AoM), business schools, consulting corporations, and foundations—within the wider intellectual environments where managerial knowledge takes shape.
We examine how these institutional actors contribute to a global American epistemology and how this relates to education and science policy—or, more broadly, to geopolitical narratives legitimizing a new international order.
Project 2
Industrial mobilisation and organization in times of war.
This project investigates industrial mobilisation—naval shipbuilding and car manufacturing during the Second World War and in more recent war episodes—capturing transformations in management practices, corporate strategies, and digital techniques from within production processes.
We also examine how industrial organization connects to federal and state public policy, and how crises reshape the boundary between private enterprise and collective effort.
Industrial processes • strategy • public policy
Methods • pedagogy • public engagement
Project 3
Experiencing the past and future of administration and management.
This project operates in “lab mode.” We design methodological and pedagogical practices to better grasp the complex history of managerial capitalism—and to share it beyond academia.
We invite students, managers, activists, artists, and citizens to reflect on the historical processes revealed by Projects 1 and 2 through scenarized walks, fiction-writing, and theatrical techniques.