CBS Library wants to celebrate and showcase early-career research at CBS. To that effect we have invited four PhD fellows from across CBS who will present and discuss their very different research projects, from modern accounting and vulnerable clients in public services to the flow of management theories in IT companies and transformations of the global economic structures in the face of climate change.

So if you want to make the most of your Tuesday afternoon, CBS Library Forum is the place to be.     

Programme:  

13:00-13:30:

Olivia Norma Jørgensen, Department of Business Humanities and Law

Hope in the Heart of Capitalism

Consultancies and accountancy firms are among some of the most reviled businesses. In the past years, the critique has intensified as accountancy firms have embarked on a journey to be the ones saving the world through sustainability services. All the big four accountancy firms in Denmark offer services assisting with sustainability reporting, materiality assessments and ESG due diligence. They are accused of not wanting to do good and only seeing the business case within this new hot topic. But how are we to understand the accountants on their own premises, and their hope for the future? Centered around fieldwork in one of the big accountancy firms in Denmark, the research focuses on the hopes and imaginaries the accountants have for the future, and the effect it has on our society, when powerful institutions are taking over the sustainability agenda.

13:40 - 14:10

Malia Carvalho, Department of Organization

Translating Organization and Management Theory into Practice

We surround ourselves with theories. Theories that guide our behavior, our way of conducting teamwork, management - our way of organizing. As part of the research project: TITAN, Malia investigates how organization and management theories are translated into practice in Danish IT companies. She traces the theories through the people in the organizations. People bring theories to life through their emotions and bodies. In her project, she tries to uncover the relationship, structures, and consequences of the relationship between theory and individual. She studies most of these processes as they unfold in real time to identify how, and with which intended and unintended consequences, academic knowledge impacts organizations, and ultimately society.

14:20-14:50

Alexandrina Schmidt, Department of Organization

Vulnerability, Social Work, and Digital Public Services

Denmark is one of the most digitalized countries in the world. During the last years, the public services and the contact to these have undergone extensive digitalizing development, with features like e-boks, MitID, digital mail, borger.dk etc. These developments imply specific demands of the Danish citizens and their abilities to navigate the increasingly digitalized public services. The research focus of Alexandrinas PhD project is two-fold. First, she focuses on vulnerable people who experience social, mental and physical challenges and who are dependent on welfare benefits. She investigates their contact with increasingly digitalized public services. Second, she focuses on social work with vulnerable clients in public services, and on how social work and social workers are affected by the increasing digitalization. 

In her research, Alexandrina uses sociological perspectives and qualitative interviewing. Her empirical case is the employment area as especially this area has undergone considerable digitalizing changes. Her empirical site is the job centre and the digital tools and technologies that social workers and unemployed people use in contact with the job centre.

15:00 - 15:30

Stella Whittaker, Department of Management, Society, and Communication

Transforming the Financing of Climate Adaptation in Cities

Climate change is a massive challenge that requires a transformation in the global economic structure. The commitments made by governments to address this challenge of adapting to as opposed to mitigation of climate change, imply the need for massive investments, which the governments alone cannot fund. Private sector finance has thus become a focus of recent global climate change agreements, as it is seen as a key contributor to delivering on these commitments. However, practitioners and academics are still grappling with the role of the private sector in this transformation, especially in the context of adaptation. This research aims to contribute to the design of a financial system that can address the adaptation gap and adaptation financing gap. It builds on the empirical work of Hafner et al. (2019) on closing the climate finance gap focused on climate mitigation, but pays less attention to how finance is developed and formed for urban climate adaptation. The article also draws from the theoretical work of Geddes & Schmidt (2020) on transforming the finance regime and Naidoo (2019) on the specific demands that sustainability transitions place on the financial system. 

Stella studies the adaptation finance gap using case studies of Copenhagen, London, and Singapore. She ultimately hopes to present findings and recommendations on a transformed finance regime that can facilitate investments in climate resilience infrastructure.