Black pragmatism and organization studies

I argue for Black pragmatism’s usefulness to organization studies by intervening in debates about the normative foundations of stakeholder theory. Tracing three braided themes within Black pragmatism (tragicomic hope, critical temper, and democratic faith), I show how they both illuminate neglected aspects of the pragmatist themes of inquiry, abduction, and community that have influenced organization studies and extend those concepts to open new avenues of inquiry. I suggest that Black pragmatism reveals how the libertarian assumptions of stakeholder theory are inconsistent with its pragmatist commitments, and that this weakness even applies to recent attempts to center stakeholder theory upon marginalized stakeholders.