My doctoral thesis makes a contribution to two scientific discussions, to critical entrepreneurship studies and the continuous discussions on growing organizational diversity and inequalities. I study subjectivity construction and construction of social change in organizing through empirical examples of micro-entrepreneuring carried out by individuals in social contexts marked by poverty, disadvantage and daily struggles to survive. In the research I focus on questions of place (as culture) and voice (as subjectivity) to bring out the diversity of organizational and entrepreneurial worlds through alternative stories of organizing from below – through everyday entrepreneurial activities of individuals acting on the margins of our societies. By that, the aim of the study is to deepen and broaden the focus of organizational diversity and entrepreneurship research, and also to bring out practices that still construct and maintain otherness and inequalities within the field of management and organization studies.

Previous degrees:

M.Sc. (Econ.&Bus. Adm.), major in management, University of Oulu, Oulu Business School, 2012

Research interests:

Entrepreneuring as social change, organizational otherness, subjectivity construction, postcolonial theory, cultural relations in organizations, critical management studies, business and society

Book chapters:

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. & Puhakka,  V. (forthcoming) The Other reading: Reflections of postcolonial deconstruction for critical entrepreneurship studies in Fayolle, A., Ramoglou, S., Karatas-Özkan, M. and Nicolopoulou, S. (Eds.) Philosophical Reflexivity in Entrepreneurship: Understanding, challenging, advancing and synthesizing worldviews in entrepreneurship research: Routledge.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2015) A postcolonial deconstruction of diversity management and multiculturalism. In Bendl, R., Bleijenbergh, I., Henttonen, E. and Mills, A.J. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Diversity in Organizations: Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Internationally refereed publications:

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2017) Embodied feminist postcolonial ethics of organization - reflections on responsibility, politics and ethics of representing others. European Business Ethics Network EBEN Annual Conference 2017, Jyväskylä 14.-16.6.2017. Conference proceedings.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. & Puhakka, V. (2016) Empowerment by oppression: managing poverty by creation of an entrepreneurial self. EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies) Conference 2016, Naples 7.-9.7.2016. Conference proceedings.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2014) Rethinking multiculturalism through cultural difference. EGOS (European Group of Organization Studies) Conference 2014, Rotterdam 3.-5.7.2014. Conference proceedings.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2014) Venture creation, growth and opportunities – what else is there to entrepreneurship? Critical Management Studies PhD Conference 2014, Leicester 16.-17.9.2014. Conference proceedings.

Presentations in workshops and seminars:

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2017) Feminist postcolonial reflections on writing from, but ‘beyond’ the Global North in CMS. International Doctoral Consortium. Jyväskylä 12.-14.6.2017.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2017) Embodied feminist postcolonial ethics of organization - reflections on responsibility, politics and ethics of representing others. Diverse organizing/organizational diversity – methodological questions and activist practices. Copenhagen Business School 2.-3.5.2017.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2016) In-between frames of belonging and contexts of becoming: A postcolonial analysis of the discursive construction of otherness in organizing. Sobey School of Business International Doctoral Consortium 8.-10.6.2016.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2016) At the nexus of entrepreneurship and development discourse: postcolonial reflections. Sobey School of Business International Doctoral Consortium 8.-10.6.2016.

Kaasila-Pakanen, A-L. (2014) Reframing entrepreneurship through postcolonialism. EDEN Doctoral seminar on qualitative business research. Brussels, 2014.