Migration is one of the defining issues of our time. Over a 100 million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes - fleeing extreme contexts of war, abject poverty, discrimination and mass persecution, environmental disasters and climate crises. This represents a formidable socio-political, economic and organisational challenge for migrants as well as host communities. Therefore, organisational research urgently needs to progress its knowledge and understanding of this phenomenon.
In this Organization Studies Special Issue, we invite you to submit papers that are heartbreaking, heartwarming, creative, innovative, thoughtful, evocative and provocative in order to stimulate academic attention and promote a deeper understanding of organisations, organising, the organised and the disorganised, in relation to the challenges around forced migration. We look forward to your submissions.
Guest Editors
• Sophie Alkhaled, Lancaster University Management School, UK
• Daniel Hjorth, Lund University School of Economics and Management, Sweden, and Copenhagen Business School, Denmark
• Alessia Contu, University of Massachusetts, USA
• Johanna Mair, Hertie School, Germany
• Monder Ram, Aston Business School, UK
Submission Deadline: April 30, 2026
Please note: Sophie, Daniel, Alessia and Johanna will be at Copenhagen for AoM 2025, so if you would like to have a chat about the SI call please contact us. We would be happy to give all the support and guidance we can. We look forward to your submission.
Sophie
Dr Sophie Alkhaled, SFHEA
Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship
Director of the Academy for Gender Equality and Social Justice Research in Organisations
Director of LUMS' Gender Equality Observatory
Department of Entrepreneurship & Strategy
Lancaster University Management School
Lancaster, LA1 4YX
Recent Publications
Alkhaled, S. (forthcoming), "'Doing' gender to 'undo' culture: Entrepreneurs' cultural marginalisation and legitimacy work in (neo)patriarchal societies". In I. Sasaki, & S. Baba, (Eds.), In the Shadows: Tales of Cultural Marginalization in Modern Society. Research in the Sociology of Organizations. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Reuber, A.R., Alkhaled, S., Barnard, H., Couper, C. and Sasaki, I. (2022) Something borrowed, something new: Challenges in using qualitative methods to study under-researched international business phenomena. Journal of International Business Studies, 53(9), pp.2147-2166.
Alkhaled, S. and Sasaki, I. (2022) Syrian women refugees: coping with indeterminate liminality during forcible displacement. Organization Studies, pp.1-23 DOI: 10.1177/01708406211040214
Alkhaled, S., (2021) Women's entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia: Feminist solidarity and political activism in disguise? Gender, Work & Organization, 28(3), pp.950-972.