Organizations and Environments
A doctoral-level MIT Sloan seminar on contemporary organization theory, drawing mainly from sociology with additional input from economics, psychology, anthropology, and political science. The course maps the field's major conceptual frameworks and debates rather than trying to cover it exhaustively, focusing on inter-organizational processes and the economic, institutional, and cultural contexts organizations operate within. Empirical studies are used as illustrations of how particular theoretical standpoints generate particular findings, with methodological training left to companion seminars. Materials include a syllabus, weekly reading lists, and discussion topics from MIT's Sloan School of Management and Department of Urban Studies and Planning, published through MIT OpenCourseWare and free to access. No certificate is offered, but the full reading list and course structure are available for self-study by anyone interested in how sociologists and economists theorize organizational behavior.