Dr Benjamin Richards

Before joining Stirling Management School in June 2022 I started out as an archaeologist, earning my undergraduate degree in 2014, then pursuing Masters degrees in Cultural Heritage Management and Social Research at the University of York before joining the York Management School in 2018. In 2021 I spent time as a visiting PhD fellow in the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School, before completing my PhD at York in 2022.

My doctoral thesis titled 'Postfascist Styles of Organisation' focused on the sign systems of postfascist and far-right movements and the messages being communicated within. I explored the concepts of 'myth' and 'the parasite' to find the hidden relation between the ideational and material through semiotic research to uncover a particular style of (dis)organisation being performed.

You can read my latest work here http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/organizational-mythopoeia-and-spectacle-postfascist-disorganization

My research now looks to further uncover otherwise hidden, clandestine or subterranean forms and styles of organisation. I am also interested in the development of Organisation Theory and the relationship between business practice and societal division, violence and cultural conflict. Further interests include ethnographic, visual and semiotic methods, noise and disorder in organisation , management and organisation history and social movements, conspiracy theory and authoritarian leadership.