Stockholm centre for organizational research - SCORE
Research themes
Score conducts research with a focus on society's governance and organization. To describe and discuss our main research, and to structure the continuous discussion about future multidisciplinary research efforts, we use the concept of "themes".
Photo: Juliana Wiklund
Score's themes are intentionally broad and heterogeneous in nature. They accommodate different projects and allow different theoretical and methodological approaches. It is the research problems that are the important commonality. Researchers from all disciplines at Score participate in each theme.
Theme: Organizing Knowledge
This research theme entails studying different types of knowledge processes, including how knowledge is produced, categorized, evaluated, legitimized and applied. The overall objective is to generate a better understanding of the organization of knowledge production and knowledge use in society.
We conduct research on the processes where-in knowledge is applied, spread, legitimized, and categorized in different settings, for example, in decision-making, advice and strategy development and in evaluation of resources, performance and outcomes. We are also interested in knowledge production in science, public administration and other contexts, primarily focusing on knowledge practices and knowledge cultures. A common focus across all these areas is how knowledge relates to organization in various ways.
We ask the following types of questions: How is knowledge and expertise formalized and codified into rules, standards, advice, strategies, rankings, quantifications and calculations, accounting systems, etc.? Who are the legitimate experts, and what disciplinary background do they have? How is knowledge produced in different contexts, by whom and for what end?
Photo: Juliana Wiklund
Theme: Organizing Markets
In this research theme we study conscious attempts to organize markets. The overall objective is to understand what these attempts to organize markets mean for society.
Many actors try to organize markets: states, companies, international organizations, standards organizations, lobby organizations, volunteer organizations, trade organizations. We investigate the ways in which these organizations attempt to organize markets and how they work.
We ask questions like: How are buyers and sellers created and shaped, and by whom? How and by whom are products created and classified in order to be understood as environmentally friendly and socially equitable? Who monitors the markets, and how? How are markets represented in narratives, statistics, tables? How are different representations and tools used to create and shape markets? How do these types of representations influence policy decisions and other decision-making regarding market governance?
Within the theme we develop theories to explain how markets are organized, how they integrate with and influence each other, the strategies used, and the outcomes of organizing markets.
Photo: Juliana wiklund
Theme: Democracy, Legitimacy and Power
In this research theme we study how political and policy power are formed and legitimized by organization and the democratic consequences of this.
Many organizations take part in the shaping of politics and policy. In addition to obvious actors like states and international inter-governmental organizations – lobby organizations, trade organizations, think tanks, consultants, non-profit organizations and companies actively work to influence politics and policy locally and globally. We seek to understand the democratic consequences of a society marked by increased complexity where questions about transparency, influence and responsibility in relation to politics and policy are far from easy to answer.
We ask questions like: How can individuals and groups gain influence in political/policy decisions? How do different governance organizations gain legitimacy in the eyes of the surrounding environment? How do they gain authority for their decisions? And how can they be held accountable for them?
Within the theme we develop theories about who controls, has access to, and takes responsibility for the public sector, which is constantly shaped and reshaped at the intersection of state, market and civil society.
Photo: Juliana Wiklund
Theme: Rule Setting and Rule Following
In this research theme we study how rules and regulatory systems are created, organized, and adopted by and within organizations. The overall objective is to understand the expansion of different forms of rules in the organization of society.
This theme emerged during the 1990s based on the observation that de-regulation led to re-regulation and more regulation, both nationally and transnationally. The research within the theme has continued in this vein, focusing on the expansion of organization and organizing as the answer to a multitude of problems. We seek to understand regulatory processes such as standardization, certification, accreditation, bureaucratization, and “soft law”, with particular focus on rules that lack the binding sanctions that laws have.
We ask questions like: How are rules and regulatory systems created, by whom, and is there competition between them? Who controls that rules are followed, and how do these controllers establish themselves as credible and “independent”? How are rules and regulation spread? How are rules and regulations adopted by organizations? How do organizations gain legitimacy for their regulatory attempts? How do rules gain authority?
Within the theme we develop theories about authority, legitimacy and independence, as well as the state’s role in various regulatory processes and the outcomes of regulation.
