Papers by Arun Kumar
Journal of Business Ethics, 2021
Scholars of business and management studies have recently turned their attention to inequality, a... more Scholars of business and management studies have recently turned their attention to inequality, a key issue for business ethics given the role of private firms in transmitting—and potentially challenging—inequalities. However, this research is yet to examine inequality from a subaltern perspective. In this paper, we discuss the alleviation of inequalities in organizational and institutional contexts by drawing on the ideas of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a jurist, political leader and economist, and one of the unsung social theorists of the twentieth century. Specifically, we focus on Ambedkar’s critique of the Indian caste system, his outline of comprehensive reform, and prescription of representational politics to achieve equality. We contend that an Ambedkarite ethical manifesto of persuasion—focussed on state-led institutional reforms driven by the subaltern—can help management researchers reimagine issues of inequality and extend business ethics beyond organizational boundaries.
Economy and Society, 2021
Global philanthropy, especially large US philanthropic foundations, has played an active but not ... more Global philanthropy, especially large US philanthropic foundations, has played an active but not unproblematic role in international development. In this article, we theorize the institutional strategies by which global philanthropy exercises its disproportionate influence. In particular, we offer bridges, interdigitates, platforms, and satellites as metaphors for theorizing the connections and disconnections that philanthropic foundations engineer. We draw on the interdisciplinary scholarship on philanthropy and development to identify three epochs: scientific development (1940s – 1970s), partnerships (1970s – 2000s), and philanthrocapitalism (2000s – present). In each of these, we outline how philanthropic foundations have used the above metaphorical institutional mechanisms—separately and increasingly in combination and more sophisticated ways—in making connections and disconnections across developmental geographies, histories, imaginaries, and institutions. Potentially generative, metaphors, we conclude, both offer ways to interpret the disproportionate power of philanthropy as well as challenge it by identifying philanthropy’s underlying assumptions, telos, and exclusions of development.
Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2020
Scholarship on US philanthropic foundations and the Americanization of management education has h... more Scholarship on US philanthropic foundations and the Americanization of management education has hitherto focussed on specific nations or regions or on particular historical moments. We build on this scholarly corpus to present, for the first time, a meta-history of the 20th century role of US philanthropy in shaping management education around the world. Having outlined the meaning and purpose of “periodization,” we propose three periods. First, within the USA from the 1920s post-Progressive Era up to the 1960s, where philanthropic foundations used management education to address internal US social problems and establish its economic pre-eminence worldwide. Second, Europe post-WWII to the 1980s, where management education was intended to enable western European reconstruction and fight communism; and later to integrate then Soviet Bloc into the west. Third, the Third World from the post-1945 development era up until the onset of neoliberal globalization, where US foundations’ management education interventions sought the technocratic modernization of former subject nations. In each of these, we conclude, the US foundations’ programs for management education worked to preserve US international interests, and promote US “soft power,” in ways unique to each time/place as well as in ways common across them.
Enterprise and Society, 2019
Founded in 1956, the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) was established with the object... more Founded in 1956, the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) was established with the objective of professionalizing management in post-colonial India through training, research, and consultancy. It was modeled on the Administrative Staff College at Henley-on-Thames (Henley), in the United Kingdom. Like Henley, ASCI used syndicates for its management training programs. Between 1958 and 1973, ASCI received more than $1.26 million from the Ford Foundation, part of which was used to finance the development and use of the case method in ASCI’s training programs, and later more widely in its research and consultancy. This article traces the ways by which the Ford Foundation––as a dominating institution––stigmatized Henley and ASCI, their institutional practices, and the wider Indian society; and legitimized the case method pioneered at the Harvard Business School. Imbricated in the Cold War’s geo-politics, Ford Foundation’s interventions in Hyderabad should be understood as part of the emergence of the United States as the dominant neo-colonial power, which required the displacement of Britain, its institutions, and their practices as the template for India’s post-colonial management institutions.
Development and Change, 2018
Despite the growing interest in organized philanthropy from India, scholarship on the subject h... more Despite the growing interest in organized philanthropy from India, scholarship on the subject has remained thin. Existing literature argues that Indian philanthropy has been shaped by three, sometimes overlapping, narratives of managerialism, modernization and nationalism. Departing from such smooth and singular narratives, this article contends that modern Indian philanthropy has been shaped by colonialism, imperialism, managerialism, modernity, nationalism, nation building, neoliberalism and secularism. The particular ways in which it has been shaped can be understood as both pragmatic and paradoxical. The article draws on the history of philanthropy of the house of Tatas, India's leading corporate group, geared toward scientific development in the 20th century.
ephemera, 2018
Despite earlier neglect, International Development (ID) has begun to receive some attention from ... more Despite earlier neglect, International Development (ID) has begun to receive some attention from the Critical Management Studies (CMS) community over the last two decades. This paper reviews existing CMS work that engages with ID and outlines directions for future research. Building on extant research and scholarship that has focussed on linkages between managerialism and ID, we identify and discuss in some depth three emerging areas within ID – financialization, evaluation and projectification–that, we argue, merit further critical scrutiny from CMS scholars. We call for a programme of theoretical and grounded empirical research into these three areas in the hope of reinvigorating CMS’s engagement with ID; a programme that would seek to expose the fallacy of the universalizing managerialism that increasingly informs ID projects and organizational practices. In operationalizing this research programme, we draw attention to problems of positionality, drawing on methodological and epistemological debates in Anthropology to inform our argument. We thus highlight the need for grounding CMS research practices in reflective trans-disciplinarity.
With the ratification of the United Nations Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CR... more With the ratification of the United Nations Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), questions of community inclusion of persons with disabilities have gained considerable attention. While the principles of inclusion have been clearly defined through the CRPD, the dearth of critical assessment of ongoing processes and outcomes of community-based inclusive development prevents a more comprehensive understanding of the present achievements and emerging challenges. This becomes ever more pertinent in developing countries that are rapidly adopting neoliberal development policies, which have reconfigured the content of citizenship, particularly in India where disability has been conventionally framed through a medical-welfare model, and where religious beliefs detract from praxis based on rights. Using case studies of existing inclusive practices in primary education and employment sectors in India, the article argues that such practices reveal dissonance in the conceptions of disability inclusion and community development.
Development in Practice, 2014
Grounded within the substantive conception of ableism (Wolbring 2008), this article explores the ... more Grounded within the substantive conception of ableism (Wolbring 2008), this article explores the prejudices and discriminations that arise out of many different forms of ableism: of bodily abilities/disabilities, gender, social structure, and economic organisation. It illustrates the processes and outcomes of ableisms deployed on the shop-floor of a multiple-award winning small-scale manufacturing unit in India. By employing a number of persons with disabilities, single women, and widows, and with plans for engaging juvenile delinquents in the near future, the manufacturing unit has seemingly created opportunities for “empowerment” of those subjected to discrimination. However, the outcomes are not necessarily so.
Disability Studies Quarterly, 2012
Despite affirmative actions such as reserved government employment, incentives and subsidies for ... more Despite affirmative actions such as reserved government employment, incentives and subsidies for employers, tax exemptions, skill development training etc., employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in India continue to be characterized by lower workforce participation, lower wages, lack of or limited career advancement, and discrimination in the workplace. While there has been some research on the presence of persons with disabilities in formal employment, such studies have lacked critical assessment of the underlying conceptions of (dis)ability and its interface with changes in the wider political and economic context. Using a case study approach, this article examines the outcomes of three employment initiatives in India. We contend that work and employment opportunities for persons with disabilities remain trapped in constructs of ableism; while neoliberalism has resulted in complex, often adverse outcomes that have received little attention. The article calls for developing a more critical research agenda and building capacities for wider contestation against ableism and neoliberalism. This article examines the outcomes of recent efforts to employ persons with disabilities in India. It attempts to unmask the underlying ableist assumptions of such efforts and to critique the complex interface between ableism and neoliberalism. We begin with a brief overview of the present employment status of persons with disabilities in India, followed by a brief account of recent efforts to increase their employment opportunities, which highlights the popularity and
Development in Practice, 2012
Citizenship has gained considerable popular currency in development and is increasingly being use... more Citizenship has gained considerable popular currency in development and is increasingly being used to represent its objectives and outcomes. The popular conceptualisations of citizenship have not remained unaffected by neo-liberalism, which has established itself firmly as the dominant development framework. In mapping the neo-liberal influences in conceptualisations and expressions of citizenship – evidenced in the work of 11 NGOs in India – the present article interrogates its limitations and effects on development outcomes. The article calls for the need to leverage the inherent plurality of citizenship more substantively by infusing the discourse of rights.
Books by Arun Kumar
Youth: Responding to Lives, 2013
Disability in South Asia, 2018
Book Reviews by Arun Kumar
Management Learning, 2013
Management Learning, 2015
Conference Presentations by Arun Kumar
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2016
Like corporate philanthropy, its history, I argue in this paper, serves as a crucial resource in ... more Like corporate philanthropy, its history, I argue in this paper, serves as a crucial resource in the creation and maintenance of corporate identity. In this, the paper presents a model of the use of history. Here history (as the past) is organized and mobilized: variously through corporate communication, record-keeping in the archives and history-writing; and history (as different from the past) is also silenced: again, through cataloguing and archival practices, destruction of sources, and silencing problematic aspects. Underlying this discussion is an important point relating to the constructed nature of history itself. The paper draws on the history and historiography of the philanthropy of the Tata group, India’s leading global business conglomerate, from 1892 onwards.
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Papers by Arun Kumar
Books by Arun Kumar
Book Reviews by Arun Kumar
Conference Presentations by Arun Kumar