This paper explores how elite lawyers in London navigate complex social, gender, ethnic, and professional boundaries through “crossings.” The research examines how individuals leverage social and cultural capital to access elite firms while transforming their identities to conform to professional expectations.

This research challenges the binary conceptualization of gender and productivity in management studies by exploring how non-binary and transgender workers construct the relationship between their gender identity and productivity. The study aims to develop more flexible and inclusive understandings of gender/productivity dynamics.

This paper uses feminist speculative fiction works like “Air: Or, Have Not Have” and “Parable of the Sower” to explore gendered leadership subjectivities beyond identity-based theorizing. The research examines how fictional depictions of women leaders offer new materialist and posthumanist perspectives on subject formation and processes of becoming in leadership roles.

Investigates how women from MENA countries navigate societal changes to cross gendered boundaries and assume leadership positions. Challenges Western-centric views of women as passive victims in these contexts.

This paper examines how Work-from-Anywhere organizations challenge traditional boundaries of space, time, and identity through communicative practices. Using CCO theory and phenomenology, the study analyzes how workers navigate accountability and identity reconstruction across dispersed geographies while maintaining organizational cohesion.

This study investigates how single women managers adapted to remote work during COVID-19 by employing compassionate leadership to strengthen team cohesion and psychological safety. The research explores how these leaders crossed conventional hierarchical boundaries, transforming traditional leader-follower dynamics through empathy, care, and active support in times of uncertainty.

Amy just landed at the airport for the fifth time this month. She’s in a completely new place, with the same huge, dirty backpack on her back. She doesn’t understand the announcements over the speakers and can’t read the signs. Excitement overshadows her fear. She runs to a nearby café and orders a lemonade. On the table, she lays out her laptop, keyboard, and mouse, trying to connect to the network. At the last second, she joins an online meeting with a client who is on the other side of the world. She prepared the proposal on the plane, hoping she’ll finally land the contract. Despite the fact that the last few months haven’t been financially great, she will never go back to a 9-to-5 job. Stability and dependency don’t interest her. She’s always wanted to be a digital nomad and finally feel free.

—

Digital nomads are defined as high-skilled professionals who use digital technologies to work remotely and lead a nomadic lifestyle (Wang et al., 2020). Although ‘nomadic’ naturally suggests frequent crossing of geographical boundaries (in this case with a clear preference for air travel to Southeast Asia), the everyday life of digital nomad also involves challenging the boundaries of body, work, relationships, and comfort zone.

After a year in the field, which I conceptualize—drawing on Strauss (2005)—as ‘the paths of transnational cultural flows of ideas, practices, and people that shape a particular “brand,”’ (p. 19) in this case, digital nomadism, I would argue that crossing—and even pushing—boundaries, in a broad sense, is a defining cultural practice at the core of digital nomadism:

A way to achieve my goal, which is to be truly self-sufficient and free. For me, this freedom is very important—this lack of boundaries. (Amy, digital nomad & entrepreneur)

Can freedom and independence be found in a world without boundaries?

A shared exploration of the daily practices of digital nomads can serve as an opportunity to truly reassess the promises brought by the popularization of new ways of working, which focus on abandoning the traditional concepts of time and space (Makimoto & Manners, 1997), and to examine the cost individuals pay to organize their lives around the concept of living without boundaries.

Makimoto, T., & Manners, D. (1997). Digital nomad. John Wiley & Sons.
Strauss, S. (2005). Positioning Yoga. Balancing Acts Across Cultures. Berg.
Wang, B., Schlagwein, D., Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., & et al. (2020). Beyond the factory paradigm: Digital nomadism and the digital future(s) of knowledge work post-COVID-19. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 21(6), 10.

This multi-method study examines how recent graduates experience and navigate hybrid working challenges and opportunities through in-depth interviews and innovative multimodal experiential maps. The research explores the agentic and creative strategies developed by new professionals to foster personal connections in hybrid work environments that have become the “new normal.”

This paper critiques traditional business school assignments and advocates for human-centered approaches that embrace transboundary learning. Using a psychogeographical derive assignment, the study explores how students can connect abstract theories with lived realities through embodied, contextual, playful, and holistic learning approaches.

Reflects on using drumming circles to challenge hidden curriculum in engineering education. Explores how embodied learning through drumming can denaturalize traditional leadership approaches and foster collective organizing.

This study explores the implementation of reflective journals in a Philosophy and Ethics in Management course, examining how this methodology creates crossings between personal experiences and ethical challenges. The research demonstrates how journals foster symbolic transformations, vulnerability, and intersubjective learning while challenging traditional academic writing practices in Brazilian higher education.

This paper analyzes the films of radical Japanese filmmaker Seijun Suzuki to understand organizational dynamics during Japan’s post-WWII transformation. Using Suzuki’s unique cinematic perspective, the study explores how chaos, violence, and cultural crossing shape organizational possibilities during periods of extreme social change.

This paper bridges gaps between ethics of care and reflexivity by analyzing Émile Zola’s Germinal as a case study. The research identifies four core dimensions of reflexive care through the novel’s exploration of miners’ struggles: self-consciousness, emotional engagement, mutuality, and public responsibility in addressing urgent organizational and societal challenges.

This paper examines festivals as sites of cultural contestation and boundary crossing, tracing their evolution from subversive carnivalesque events to corporatized experiences. The research explores how contemporary festivals have been integrated into capitalist organization while investigating potential for recuperating subversive inclusivity and analyzing frameworks for festivals of protest and alternativity.

This paper examines the sparse representation of international business themes in Western cinema despite the prominent role of multinational corporations in public discourse. The research analyzes films as instructional materials, case studies, and reality-generating texts while exploring how cinematic representations intersect with international business pedagogy.

Using Non-Corporeal Actant Theory, this case study examines the 2019 death of firefighter Skyler Blackie during safety training in Nova Scotia. The research explores how conflicts between safety values and machismo culture resulted in crossing the line from safe to unsafe, analyzing how power, influence, and gendered dynamics interact in firefighting organizations.

This paper explores how sport organizations can transcend being mere “gateways” by examining England Athletics as a case study for developing meaningful EDI policies. The research analyzes leadership attitudes and values in sports governance, challenging the myth of sport as a social leveller while proposing new paths toward systemic inclusion beyond superficial policy frameworks.

This qualitative study examines women’s experiences navigating career progression in the UK banking sector amid global EDI retrenchment. Drawing on feminist theory and interviews with women in management roles, the research critiques EDI policies as potential “boundary-maintaining technologies” and explores the concept of “gender greenwashing” in male-dominated financial institutions.

This autoethnographic essay explores the author’s confrontation with climate change in rural France and the complex crossings of Self it entailed. The paper examines the translation between studying systems holistically versus reductively, addressing paradigmatic positions of simplicity and complexity while navigating divided roles as environmental activist and critical academic.

This research examines the persistent underrepresentation of Black women in social work management positions despite their significant frontline presence. Grounded in critical race theory, Black feminist theory, and intersectionality, the study explores intersecting barriers of race and gender that create cumulative disadvantages in career advancement for Black women.

This paper examines the interconnected colonial landscapes of Gaza, Cyprus, and the UK through the lens of Palestinian solidarity movements. The research explores how student encampments serve as bastions of resistance through shared solidarity, learning, and community building while challenging institutional silencing and raising visibility for Palestinian rights.

This study investigates reciprocal mentoring programs between Japanese managers and international students in Japanese universities. The research examines how designed reciprocal mentoring transforms traditional one-way mentoring relationships into two-way exchanges that promote mutual understanding across diverse cultural groups.

Analyzes how feminist politics becomes consumable content through Netflix political dramas featuring female leaders. Examines the complex crossing between feminist representation and marketable media products in streaming platforms.

This case study examines the Proyecto Lunares Binacional, a women’s music collective operating on the Brazil-Uruguay border. The research explores how immaterial labor manifests through cooperation networks, self-entrepreneurship, and the combination of “sonority and sorority” as support mechanisms for women artists.

This conceptual paper examines the paradoxical nature of transgressive entrepreneurs through analysis of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul television series. The study explores how these boundary-crossing anti-heroes become trapped in cycles of transgression while their repeated performances on screen both reinforce and subvert cultural entrepreneurial identities.

This presentation examines multiple crossings in prison education, focusing on teaching college art classes in women’s prisons and supporting formerly incarcerated students. The research explores how education serves as a tool for crossing boundaries and reducing recidivism through creative and academic programs.

This case study examines a UK business school social engagement programme that teaches students mentoring skills while working with underprivileged groups. The research explores how creative pedagogies can achieve critical performativity by traversing across multiple discourses including business school responsibility, caring capitalism, employability, and STEM education.

Explores management strategy in the context of climate change and global challenges. Examines how graduate students research themes of complexity, climate change, and social justice to develop critical management perspectives.

This paper examines the future of universities through narrative collages and short stories, analyzing utopian, dystopian, and regenerative visions of higher education. The research explores how universities can cross the void between current despair and hopeful engagement while addressing challenges of marketization and technological disruption in educational institutions.

This study critically examines the concept of ‘information’ in the era of infinite digital access, exploring how organizations navigate boundaries between credible information, disinformation, and noise. The research investigates internal and external boundary enforcement mechanisms while analyzing tensions between democratization of knowledge access and the challenges of complexity, overload, and misinformation.

Maps the third sector workforce in social care, health and wellbeing in one UK region. Examines how boundaries blur between sectors as third sector organizations increasingly deliver statutory services.

This research explores managers as navigators of organizational and symbolic crossings in complex environments, examining how they mediate boundaries to enable innovation and inclusion. Using ethnographic methods with 26 managers across various sectors, the study illustrates how managerial practices transform boundaries from sites of division into spaces of connection and growth.

This qualitative study examines how a UK local government authority translated austerity-driven central government funding cuts into organizational transformation. The research focuses on multiple actors and actants involved in translating public spending cuts, arguing that paradox is central to the difficult crossing confronting translation as ideas move from page to practice.

This study explores the embodied dimensions of disenfranchised grief in workplaces following perinatal loss. Drawing on extensive qualitative data including interviews, ethnography, and affect houses, the research introduces ‘the grieving maternal body’ concept to denote the complex multi-layered process of loss encompassing the loss of a body, in the body, and from the body.

This review synthesizes evidence on art-based interventions to modify incivility behaviors in nursing, particularly targeting women nurses who face higher risks of workplace mistreatment. The study proposes a reframing model with experiential, perceptual, and creative components to enhance empowerment and psychological safety for women nurses dealing with workplace incivility.

This study applies Freire’s emancipatory practice model to examine interviews with 24 menopausal individuals working freelance in the UK fashion industry. The research develops a “Menopausal Praxis” framework highlighting how menopausal bodies respond to oppressive fashion work systems through transformative, often sensory actions that challenge ageist and gendered stereotypes.

This qualitative life history study examines how midlife women teachers experience the intersections of menopause and dual caregiving responsibilities. Using Life Course Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory, the research explores how these crossings shape career trajectories, self-efficacy, and decisions about staying in or leaving the teaching profession.

This research examines how the Black Leadership Empowerment Programme dismantles boundaries sustaining racial inequalities through collective care processes. The study develops the concept of “transformative careers” as a form of collective care, contributing to critical career studies and ethics of care literatures while reimagining universities as places of hope and goodness.

This conceptual paper goes beyond using zombies as metaphors to invoke the full mythological force for analyzing workplace issues. The research offers a culturally grounded analysis of ongoing work zombification, examining origins in Haitian culture, cinematic representations, and contemporary signs of zombification while exploring potential antidotes within the cultural materials that sustain the myth.

This paper explores current gender identity debates through an analysis of public toilets as symbolic spaces. Using Winnicott’s concept of transitional objects, the research examines how public toilets serve as sites where debates around gendered space, embodiment, solidarity, and threat coalesce, providing insights into polarized discourses on gender identities.

This study analyzes how Japanese managers use rhetorical history as persuasive strategy toward employees, examining the distinction between stated words and true intentions in Japanese organizational culture. Using a termite control company case study, the research explores how organizational reality is created and reconstructed through strategic use of historical narratives in management communications.

This study challenges the traditional “triangular relationship” model of platform services by examining additional stakeholders often overlooked in platform dynamics. Using aesthetic frameworks and service-as-theater concepts, the research explores how platform services are experienced through the senses, focusing on Bolt rideshare platform and revealing exploitative conditions and systemic inequities.

Deliberates on research bricolage during a longitudinal case study of Salvatore Ferragamo luxury fashion house. Explores how organizational theorizing intersects with research theorizing across philosophical boundaries of design, management, and history.

Our research interest is in the clarification of the factors that transform employees hired by companies into people who actively create new businesses, and in exploring methods for developing such people on the basis of the factors that cause this transformation. People who are able to create new businesses within established companies are often called intrapreneurs or corporate entrepreneurs, and have been the subject of research for many years. In this study, we will use the term ‘intrapreneur’ to refer to both of these terms and the main focus of this research is on the mechanisms by which leaders are transformed into intrapreneurs. First, we conducted a narrative review of academic journals published between January 1980 and December 2020 using a database of Japanese academic journals as well as EBSCO host, and found that there were virtually no prior studies based on this research interest (Shindo & Fukuhara, 2025). Therefore, we decided to conduct an exploratory qualitative analysis by interviewing managers in charge of the corporate venturing program (CVP) in three companies – Panasonic and Fujitsu, which are major Japanese electronics manufacturers that adopted the CVP for a long time, and RICOH, which has recently established a program that operates both the CVP and open innovation with startup companies in parallel. In addition, we also interview people who have become intrapreneurs through the program. The key concept adopted for the research was identity work (e.g. Sveningsson & Alvesson, 2003). The reason for focusing on this concept is that, in this study, which adopts an interactive approach to intrapreneurship and leadership (Shindo & Fukuhara, 2025), unlike traditional identity research, we consider that identity is formed through interactions with various stakeholders surrounding the actor, and we thought that the concept of identity work would be highly compatible with this. From our research findings, Panasonic abolished its CVP in May 2024 because the company had become too focused on fostering social Intrapreneurs, and as a large corporation, it was failing to scale up successfully. Instead of it, in June of the same year, it shifted to an open innovation program with startup companies that focused on selecting and concentrating management resources in four fields. Fujitsu also completely renewed its existing, dysfunctional CVP in December 2021, and it is very interesting that the office of CVP is not located within Fujitsu, but at external CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center) Tokyo, where they can inevitably interact with the other startups, large companies, universities and investors on the same floor. As for RICOH, the final pitch contest for intrapreneurs and team members in collaboration with startup companies are held at the same place. This kind of setting suggests that intrapreneurs are made aware of the influence of other people in the company (e.g. existing intrapreneurs and members of the same company who collaborate with startups) on their identity. However, the exploratory study demonstrated that the interaction with people outside the company, that is, boundary cross activities, overwhelmingly contributed to the construction of the intrapreneur’s identity.

This paper explores the intersections between local governance, community networks, and rural entrepreneurship through the case of a newly established winery in Yakumo, Hokkaido, Japan. It examines how new entrants in the wine industry navigate complex regulatory frameworks, build trust within local communities, and develop a sustainable business model in a traditionally closed rural society. The concept of “crossings” emerges as a key theme, encompassing not only physical transitions — such as moving from urban to rural areas — but also social, cultural, and institutional shifts.
The entrepreneurs at the center of this study are a couple who returned to their hometown to start a winery despite having no prior experience in agriculture. Their journey began with extensive research into Yakumo’s climate and soil conditions, revealing the town’s untapped potential for grape cultivation. However, establishing a winery in a rural region posed significant challenges, particularly in obtaining the necessary licenses and gaining credibility within a conservative farming community.
One key enabler of the project was the support provided by a government-led rural revitalization program aimed at attracting new residents to depopulated areas. These programs provide financial assistance and structured frameworks for individuals willing to relocate and contribute to the socio-economic development of rural communities. Under this initiative, local governments collaborate with individuals to promote sustainable business ventures, offering essential support for navigating regulatory processes and accessing local resources.
Another critical factor in the project’s success was the entrepreneurs’ ability to build relationships both within and beyond the local community. They established trust with local farmers and municipal officials while also leveraging broader industry networks to acquire technical knowledge and resources. These crossings between local engagement and external expertise played a vital role in the winery’s early success.
The paper highlights several key crossings that were crucial to the project:

1. Local governance and private enterprise: Collaboration between municipal authorities and entrepreneurs to navigate regulatory challenges and secure necessary licenses.
2. Traditional agriculture and modern entrepreneurship: The transition from conventional farming practices to a value-added business model centered on wine production.
3. Community engagement and external expertise: Integration of local support networks with broader industry contacts to foster sustainable growth.

The case study underscores the importance of social capital in rural entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurs’ success depended not only on business acumen but also on their ability to establish credibility and trust in a community with deeply rooted traditions. Their approach to crossing boundaries between different social groups and professional sectors provides a model for revitalizing rural economies through sustainable, community-driven initiatives.
The study demonstrates how rural regions can create new opportunities for economic growth by encouraging crossings between stakeholders, sectors, and cultural practices. These crossings are not just about bridging gaps but about creating new spaces for innovation, collaboration, and mutual understanding. The findings suggest that fostering such transitions is critical for sustainable rural development in both emerging and established industries.

This study presents findings from an international collaboration involving four universities in the 4EU+ Alliance, focusing on innovative solutions for climate resilience in Warsaw. The research examines how crossing organizational boundaries through interdisciplinary collaboration and citizen engagement can facilitate sustainable water management strategies and resilience culture among urban populations.

This multilingual feminist research project examines women managers’ careers in post-socialist Hungary and Poland using translanguaging methodology. The study explores how “anti-gender” policies and COVID-19 effects intersect with professional opportunities, proposing translanguaging as an innovative approach to studying careers in Central Eastern Europe’s semi-peripheral context.

Explores how weavers develop and utilize different types of knowledge that transcend articulation. Uses interdisciplinary frameworks to examine weaving as a site of creativity, cultural preservation, and cognitive engagement.

Examines how surfing facilitates psychological processing of combat experiences for Israeli reservists. Studies nature-based experiences and their transformative potential for healing and self-boundary expansion.

This qualitative study explores how Arab women navigate cultural and professional integration on the Brazil-Uruguay border through the lens of deterritorialization and reterritorialization. The research examines how these women negotiate family traditions while pursuing education and careers in a transnational space.

This study explores how the intersection of race, class, gender, and migration status influences work-life experiences of migrant women professionals in UK organizational structures. Using intersectionality framework and semi-structured interviews with 30 STEM professionals from Asian, Black, and European backgrounds, the research examines strategic essentialism and boundary management practices in post-Brexit and post-COVID contexts.

This ethnographic case study explores queer place-making in Tallinn, Estonia, within the context of the country’s post-Soviet nation-building and adoption of progressive European values. Drawing on theories of place, parochialism, and critical queer regionality, the research examines how Estonia’s LGBTQ community navigates identity and space in the capital city.

Examines identity development of Modern Orthodox women in multicultural academic environments through interfaith dialogue. Analyzes how crossing cultural and religious boundaries shapes self-reflection and identity transformation.

This paper argues for creating safe organizational spaces to process emotions during times of change and crisis. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the authors contend that all change involves loss that must be mourned, and organizations need to provide containment for the rage and anxiety that accompany transitions.

This paper argues for creating safe organizational spaces to process emotions during times of change and crisis. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, the authors contend that all change involves loss that must be mourned, and organizations need to provide containment for the rage and anxiety that accompany transitions.

Explores emotional labor in volunteer management, focusing on negative emotional experiences that profoundly impact managers. Introduces the concept of “beyond the frame” to capture powerful resonance of dark emotions like fear and dread.

Explores emotional labor in volunteer management, focusing on negative emotional experiences that profoundly impact managers. Introduces the concept of “beyond the frame” to capture powerful resonance of dark emotions like fear and dread.

Examines how testimony to gendered harm can produce visibility without structural change. Introduces the concept of “affective containment” to describe how institutions perform responsiveness while preserving core hierarchies.

This study investigates the essence of business school education in Japan through interviews, examining the unique challenges faced by the small MBA market in a context of low labor mobility. The research explores how Japanese business schools serve as bridges, buffer zones, and crossroads for students navigating Western management theories within Japan’s distinct business context.

This study examines the coexistence of identities among married women in Japan who serve as both wives and entrepreneurs in newly established Hokkaido wineries. The research explores how these women navigate traditional “good wife, wise mother” expectations while taking on strong managerial roles, embodying tensions between traditional domestic roles and entrepreneurial leadership.

This study investigates reciprocal mentoring programs between Japanese managers and international students in Japanese universities. The research examines how designed reciprocal mentoring transforms traditional one-way mentoring relationships into two-way exchanges that promote mutual understanding across diverse cultural groups.

This workshop proposal invites participants to explore interconnectedness and boundary negotiations through craft activities involving clay, fabrics, and other materials. Informed by New Materialities Approach, the workshop enables participants to experience forms of crossing and boundary transgression while processing how these create affective atmospheres in organizational contexts.

Proposes a dramatic performance combining Cassandra’s prophecies from Aeschylus’ Agamemnon with scholarly discussion. Explores relevance of marginalized voices and unheeded warnings in contemporary disinformation contexts.

This workshop invites participants to materialize their menopause experiences through creative artifacts, inspired by embodied research methods from a PhD study on gendered ageism in UK fashion work. The interactive “crafternoon” style session encourages participants to create 3D objects or 2D sketches representing their perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause experiences as both research prompt and expression.

The new University of Cyprus library, designed by the famous architect, Jean Nouvel, was inaugurated in December 2018. The building, named the “Stelios Ioannou Learning Resource Center”, is a five-story structure, designed as an “earthwork,” echoing the region’s undulating terrain. It is located to the northeast of the University campus and resembles an artificial hill, similar in shape to the adjacent hills of the area and especially the Aronas hill which dominates the south part of the area with its characteristic plateau. (Aronas holds a special place in Cypriot history, as will be discussed in one of the keynotes.) You can read more about the library here: https://library.ucy.ac.cy/information/stelios-ioannou-lrc/?lang=en .

DANCING IN A-YARD is a feature documentary about a group of young inmates in California State Prison, willing to take a chance to be mocked and harassed in the yard, start a dance class. This class quickly becomes an intoxicating escape from their grim reality.

This session is an informal Q&A type session, where PhD students and Early Career Researchers have the opportunity to meet with present and past Editors/Associate Editors of journals in the field to discuss the publishing process. Journals discussed included Culture and Organization, Management Learning, Tamara, QROM, and others.

Challenges dominant responses to generative AI like ChatGPT in HE, particularly within business schools, which tend to either restrict its use or accommodate it. The authors propose a third, “inquisitive” approach grounded in Lacanian psychoanalysis, and emphasise the changing dynamics of knowledge and the student–educator relationship.

This study examines how sustainability is communicated and understood within Estonia’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Using discourse analysis and interviews, it explores how public narratives shape entrepreneurs’ perceptions and practices. The findings aim to inform more effective sustainability policies and support a resilient, sustainability-oriented business landscape.

Rosa Stourac McCreery is a facilitator, performer, theatre maker & director, producer, community activator, creative instigator and activist.  A specialist in Theatre of the Oppressed, clowning and physical theatre, and a background in circus arts, particularly aerial circus, she has 25 years experience co-creating with a wide range of age groups and communities with diverse backgrounds and needs. Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne (UK), her work regularly engages with local and global issues and communities, from Byker to Brazil, Glasgow to Ghana, Spain to Senegal, and now, Cyprus! Recent examples of her work have included a legislative theatre process about reporting processes for sexual violence, a forum theatre performance for a conference about LGBTQ+ young people and mental health, and a range of theatre and video pieces about immigration detention.