Responsible Capitalism – Micro and macroinstitutional conditions of transformation

In its second edition, the summer school on Responsible Capitalism is an initiative of the VIU in cooperation with the two member universities Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and Lausanne. It aims at the development of ideas that promote a more sustainable future by bringing together young scholars from all over the world to discuss their ideas on the future of Capitalism from the microlevel of individual decision making to the organizational and the societal level. It gives young scholars the opportunity to discuss with eminent scholars in management theory and to test their ideas and present their work. Participants will be made familiar with recent research from a broad set of disciplines. They will work on their ability to engage in the transdisciplinary discourse which is required for the development of innovative answers to grand sustainability challenges.

Course leader

Prof. Guido Palazzo, University of Lausanne

Target group

Applications are welcome from current PhD students, post-doc researchers in Management, Strategy, Organization Theory, Finance, Economic Sociology, and related disciplines from universities worldwide.

Course aim

Capitalism is facing a historically unprecedented legitimacy crisis. Accumulating social and environmental side effects, disconnected financial markets, and a growing gap between the rich and the poor create grand challenges which require fundamental changes in how we produce and consume. While the importance and urgency of sustainability is rarely challenged, deep processes of transformation usually face numerous institutional and psychological barriers that have to be overcome. As Jared Diamond described in his book “Collapse”, civilizations often react to a crisis of which they do not understand the causalities by reinforcing the routines that might have created the crisis in the first place. Understanding the institutional and psychological forces that block and/or enable deep transformations is a key aspect of responsible capitalism. The Venice Summer School 2017 will investigate those forces on the individual, organizational and societal level.