Dr Maria Daskalaki

PhD

Professor in Organisation Studies

Oxford Brookes Business School

Maria Daskalaki

Role

In my role of Professor of Organisation Studies at Oxford Brookes Business School, I contribute to the delivery and design of modules drawing upon my long-standing teaching and research experience in the fields of Organisation Studies and Critical Management Studies. My research areas include alternative forms of organizing, solidarity and care networks, digital work futures, transnational feminist activism, space/place studies, post-capitalist resistance movements, and autoethnographic approaches in management research. 

I am also the Co-Director of the Centre for Business, Society and Global Challenges at Oxford Brookes Business School. 

My interdisciplinary research profile demonstrates links with academic communities and industry professionals worldwide, and my experience in leading research-informed, innovative, and inspiring projects contributes to the Business School’s commitment to academic excellence.  I act as a mentor a number of ECRs and supervise a range of UG/PG dissertations and PhD projects.  I am member of the Editorial Board of Organization Studies; and several other research networks (such as the CoopUK, SE Europe, European Group for Organization Studies; Gender, Work and Organization, Critical Management Studies Women’s Association). 

Teaching and supervision

Modules taught

  • Organisational Design & Organisational Development

For almost 20 years I have been actively involved in both designing and delivering modules for various programmes, engaging with a range of diverse teaching teams and student communities. I have always excelled in student evaluations of my modules, and in 2012 I received a research-informed teaching award at Kingston Business School. My pedagogic approach brings research and teaching practice together, engages with current debates in the field, and encourages students to become critical and reflexive thinkers and practitioners. Both delivery and assessment strategies in my modules stress the importance of responsible management and sustainable and ethical business development and enterprise and encourage students to engage with their own diverse experiences from the local business communities. I have extensive module leading and teaching experience in different modes (large lectures to small interactive seminars and workshops), as well as experience in curriculum and materials development. 

Supervision

I welcome PhD candidates interested in civil society organisations (CSOs) & social transformation, organisational spaces & cultures, resistance in organisations, activism, gender, social & solidarity economy (SSE), digital economy, and democratic and inclusive work futures. 

Research

My research interests include alternative forms of organizing, solidarity and care networks, transnational feminist activism, space/place studies, post-capitalist resistance movements, and autoethnographic approaches in MOS. She has recently completed a British Academy of Management project on Social and Solidarity Economy: Alternative Forms of Organizing and Social Transformation.  Her work is published in a range of peer-reviewed journals including Human Relations, Organization Studies, Environment and Planning A, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Management Inquiry and International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 

My research mainly focuses on social and solidarity economy initiatives and how they co-produce new, more inclusive & ethical organizational forms. I am interested in identifying the ways through which these initiatives contribute to social transformation in both local and translocal levels. In 2015 I led a project on the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (2008) on work and organizing, with a particular focus on gender, unemployment, career paths, solidarity networks and socially transformative organizational forms (‘Social and Solidarity Economies in times of crisis: Communities and Social Transformation’ funded by the British Academy of Management- Transitions 2 Grant Scheme, 2015; in collaboration with Professor Marianna Fotaki, Warwick Business School). My current research includes the dynamics of working-from-home (WFH), focusing on the processes through which the co-constitutive relations between production and social reproduction are being reconfigured in the post-Covid-19 world of work. Drawing on approaches on post-work futures in the context of grand challenges (such as rising inequalities, migration, technological advancements, and sustainability), this project seeks opportunities for post-pandemic transformative interventions in social, political, and economic spheres. 

My earlier work focused on mobile work patterns and the construction of professional identities. This work, based primarily on auto-ethnographic methodologies, such as personal diary vignettes, informs the studies on global or mobile careers, expatriate identities, as well as practiced cosmopolitanism. This project inspired the development of an online platform, ‘Stories on the Move’, a research digital platform (currently in progress) through which expatriate and mobile work communities share personal narratives of living and working across borders. ‘Stories on the Move’ is part of an ongoing research project on translocality, mobility and workplace identities.

Research impact

"Social and Solidarity Economies in times of crisis: Communities and Social Transformation" funded by the British Academy of Management- Transitions 2 Grant Scheme, 2015; This project offered an understanding of different responses to the crisis and advanced practical knowledge about how local communities deal with lack of public funding and resources. This had practical implications for addressing future challenges of the European ‘social’ model as it might enable the reformulation of core values of universality, equity, and solidarity in new and meaningful ways to better meet the demands for responsive European policy. Other stakeholders and potential users of the findings and outputs produced in this project, in addition to the participants and their networks, are: a) other similar initiatives wanting to modify and/or adapt their practice; b) established institutional agents  collaborating/co-operating in the grassroots movements; c) local authorities and councils interested in emerging alternatives and d) academic communities in Europe and elsewhere. 

Also, I am the Academic Advisor of the ‘Caravan Project’. This is a community project delivered by a group of documentary filmmakers, anthropologists, and artists. In 2016 we have completed the project ‘Storytelling as a platform for learning, creativity and social change’, funded by Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC, 2013-2016): Indicative actions organized in as part of the project include free educational workshops on filmmaking and storytelling offered at schools and community platforms in 6 different cities in Greece, and the production of an online archive of film documentaries and stories co-produced by local communities.

Recently, my paper 'Daskalaki, M., & Simosi, M. (2018). Unemployment as a liminoid phenomenon: Identity trajectories in times of crisis. Human Relations, 71(9), 1153-1178' was one of the top papers published in Human Relations, with a Vodcast available at the Journal's Channel. 

Dissemination of my research includes presentations and plenary talks in a number of international conferences and symposia, such GWO (Gender, Work and Organisation), CMS (Critical Management Studies), WES (Work, Employment and Society) APROS (Asian Pacific Researchers in Organization Studies), LAEMOS (Latin American and European Meeting on Organization Studies) and EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies). 

Centres and institutes

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Academic Member CIPD;
  • Fellow of HEA 

Conferences

Recent conference attendance:

  • Daskalaki, M. and Vladimirou, D. (2021) The discursive construction of home(work) / WFH: #tradwives and neoliberal feminism in media contexts, Gender, Work and Organisation (Kent, virtual). 
  • Varkaolis, O. and Daskalaki, M. (2021) ‘Critical Management Studies and resisting degeneration”, Academy of Management (virtual)2021. Best paper award at AoM CMS division. 
  • Georgiou, A. Daskalaki, M, and Arenas, D. (2021) Institutions, values practices and community organizing: The case of Chios Mastic Growers, 37th EGOS Colloquium 2021, hosted by VU University (virtual), Amsterdam. 
  • Daskalaki, M. and Vladimirou D. (2019) Complaints as Digital Activism: The Case of #MuckyMerton, EGOS Workshop, Greece. 

Consultancy

Further details

I have gained extensive experience in international collaborations in my role as Academic Liaison Director for Overseas Collaborations at Kingston Business School (2002-2014). In this role, I led the validation and Internal Subject Reviews of UG and PG programmes and monitored the teaching and learning quality of the Business and Management programmes delivered by a partner institution in Greece. I have provided continuous mentoring and guidance based on periodic reviews, external panel recommendations, students’ feedback and new developments in the field including the use of blended learning techniques. Besides chairing Examination and Assessment Boards, I successfully completed two QAA Institutional inspections (International Collaborations) and an AMBA Accreditation and re-accreditation at the partner institution. 

Currently, I am a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council in a EU project Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance with title ‘Europe Engage: Developing a culture of civic engagement through service-learning within HE in Europe (Solidarity Economy, 4Ces), led by Aristotelian University in Athens (2020-2023).The project will develop the educational package on the theoretical and practical applications of SE towards community development drawing on local and international experiences.