Past events

Human Resource Management (HRM) for the Common Good | Olga Andrianova

Lecturer in Management and REEF member Olga Andrianova is one of the organisers of a spring workshop on Common Good HR Management taking place next month. With the theme of ‘A Common Good Perspective on Sustainable HRM: Contributions to navigating ecological and social sustainability challenges’, the event is free to join online on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 March 2024.

Open University Public Lecture | Andreas Malm

We were thrilled to host a public lecture and discussion from one of the world’s leading climate change and political economy academics, Andreas Malm.

Andreas talked about the key themes from his book White Skin, Black Fuel, exploring the racist and colonial roots of the fossil fuel industry and the legacy of these into present day reactionary and fascist responses to climate change.

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Sarah Jaffe hosts... Guerrilla Democracy: Mobile Power and Revolution in the 21st Century

This is a recording of the Sarah Jaffe hosts... Guerrilla Democracy: Mobile Power and Revolution in the 21st Century event, which took place Tuesday 20 July 2021.

Hosted by acclaimed author and labour journalist Sarah Jaffe, this event discussed key themes from 'Guerrilla Democracy: Mobile Power and Revolution in the 21st Century', a new book authored by Dr Peter Bloom and former OUBS academics Dr Owain Smolović Jones and Dr Jamie Woodcock, this video discusses its relevance for contemporary work and social struggles.

Select this link to find out more about the book Guerrilla Democracy Mobile Power and Revolution in the 21st Century.

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Sarah Jaffe: Work Won’t Love You Back

To support international workers’ day, Sarah Jaffe discusses Work Won’t Love You Back – a book in which she examines the prevalence of the ‘labour of love’ myth: the idea that certain work is not really work, and should be done for the sake of passion rather than material rewards.

Through the lives and experiences of various workers—from the unpaid intern and the overworked teacher, to the nonprofit employee, the domestic worker and even the professional athlete, this talk asks whether we’ve been tricked into a new tyranny of work and proposes some suggestions for how to combat it.

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Lynne Segal: The Politics of Care

In this special International Women’s Day event, one of the most important feminists of our times, Lynne Segal, makes the case for a politics of care – for care to be at the heart of all aspects of contemporary life. Lynne invites us to reimagine the role of care in our everyday lives, urging us to make it the organising principle in every dimension and at every scale of life. We are all dependent on each other, and only by nurturing these interdependencies can we cultivate a world in which each and every one of us can not only live but thrive.

The Collective’s book, the Care Manifesto, is a wonderful and inspiring call for us to put care at the heart of the state and the economy. A caring government must promote collective joy, not the satisfaction of individual desire, the authors state. This means the transformation of how we organise work through co-operatives, localism and nationalisation. It proposes the expansion of our understanding of kinship for a more 'promiscuous care'. It calls for caring places through the reclamation of public space, to make a more convivial city. It sets out an agenda for the environment, most urgent of all, putting care at the centre of our relationship to the natural world.

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International Studying Leadership Conference 2021

The Open University Business School hosted a 3-day online International Studying Leadership Conference, with experts and academics presenting their research from a wide range of global universities and organisations.

To watch the video recordings, select the links to the YouTube playlists listed below:

Keynote sessions Day 1 recordings Day 2 recordings Day 3 recordings

Grace Blakeley: Recovering from the Corona Crash with a Green New Deal

Come and join esteemed author and economist Grace Blakeley for an online public lecture from The Open University’s Research into Employment, Empowerment and Futures (REEF) academic centre of excellence, as she discusses her new book, The Corona Crash.

The Corona crisis has devastated lives and economies, disproportionately harming the poorest and most vulnerable in our societies. So how do we build back in ways that enhance prosperity and health?

In this online public lecture, Grace Blakeley will draw on ideas from her new book, The Corona Crash (available to buy here), arguing that the pandemic will reshape the UK and global economies in profound ways. The question is not whether things will change, but how. This present moment therefore offers an opportunity to reshape the future in liberating ways. The time has come, Grace will argue, to organise for a Green New Deal, one that aligns climate justice with social and economic justice.

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‘What is the Future of Professional Knowledge and Learning?’ An Unconference

Wednesday 13 June 2018, London

This unconference was open to anyone interested in the future of professional work. The purpose was to facilitate discussions that might lead to new working relationships and projects in this area.

Unconference wiki

Research Development Day

14th June 2018, The Open University, Milton Keynes

This event included talks from invited guests: Ann Cunliffe Professor of Organisation Studies, Fundação Getulio Vargas-EAESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil; Staffan Furusten Associate Professor of Management, Stockholm School of Economics and Director of the interdisciplinary Stockholm Centre for Organisational Research (SCORE), Stockholm University, Sweden; Hilary Sommerlad Professor of Law and Social Justice, University of Leeds, UK

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