Beyond humor: memes as historical sources in management & organizational history

We investigate the largely untapped potential of internet memes as primary historical sources. Conceptualizing memes as the digital successors to political cartoons, this study addresses two pivotal questions: How can memes serve as historical evidence within organizational studies, and what methodological challenges do they pose? We contend that memes are indispensable to the concept of ‘Present Time History,’ as they provide real-time documentation of public responses to complex phenomena, thereby revealing alternative chronologies often marginalized or absent in formal records. As collective, emergent expressions, memes encapsulate the transient social mood and polarized discourses. Their use as historical sources necessitates nuanced methodological approaches concerning their production, preservation, and accessibility, since they differentiate from traditional archival materials. This study advances four principal contributions: (1) unveiling silenced voices and alternative temporal narratives; (2) addressing the unique challenges posed by digital sources, including their ephemerality, fungibility, and inherent satirical nature; (3) reinforcing the discipline’s commitment to democratizing history beyond official documents; and (4) proposing future pathways such as the development of dedicated meme archives and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. History is continually being constructed in real time on digital platforms, thus we offer a novel lens for the analysis of visual artifacts within organizational studies.