BE-bus Student Forum

Friday 2^nd September, 12-2pm

Harvard 2 Lecture Theatre

Panel presenters (in order of presentation): Steven Segal (Macquarie University), Cristina Neesham (Swinburne University), Rob Macklin (UTAS) & Robyn Freeman (UTAS)

Philosophy of Management is a comparatively new field of inquiry that looks to apply philosophical ideas in a thoroughgoing and serious-minded way to explore contemporary issues in business and management. The founding editor of the journal Philosophy of Management (Springer) is Nigel Laurie, who uses philosophy to work with firms in the City of London through his consultancy London Facilitators – www.londonfacilitators.com. In other words, one does Philosophy of Management rather more than one studies it, and we have discovered this is so even when we teach it. It’s easily forgotten that philosophy has traditionally always been a practical subject. We spend much of our time wrapped up in our thoughts, after all! Even though it tends to enjoy a poor “brand image” today, it’s not nearly as impractical, or elitist, or even as difficult as its image portends – particularly when the focus is on finding new ways of seeing old conundrums. This is why the Philosophy in Schools project www.fapsa.org.auhas had such great success…

The seminar will take a panel format, where each of the speakers will present short papers on their topics in turn, followed by questions at the end leading to wider discussion (please see attachments for abstracts and presenter bios). It will be introduced and chaired by University of Tasmania Associate Professor Mark Dibben, unit co-ordinator of our third year undergraduate unit in the subject, co-editor of the journal Philosophy of Management, and Visiting Professor of Applied Process Thought in the Centre for Process Studies at Claremont Graduate University, California.

All welcome.