How do occupations and professions shape our understanding of the past? This Special Issue explores the vital relationship between expert work and collective memory, examining how occupational groups remember, reinterpret, preserve, and contest histories across organizations and communities.
Drawing on diverse empirical settings, the collection reveals how memory influences professional identities, occupational boundaries, collaboration, institutional change, and collective action. Together, these papers demonstrate that remembering is not simply about preserving the past; it is an active process that helps shape professions, organizations, and society.
Read the full issue here: Occupations and Memory in Organization Studies or browse the individual articles below.
Expert Memories: The Professional Construction of the Past and the Mnemonic Making of Occupations by Diego M. Coraiola, Sébastien Mena, Mairi Maclean, Roy Suddaby, and Daniel Muzio
Representing, Re-presenting, or Producing the Past? Memory Work amongst Museum Employees by Jeremy Aroles, Kevin Morrell, Edward Granter, and Yin Liang
‘From the Ivory Tower’? Memory Workers and Mnemonic Practices in Communities by Yasaman Sadeghi
Old Skool Spinning and Syncing: Memory, Technologies, and Occupational Membership in a DJ Community by Hamid Foroughi, Micki Eisenman, and Samantha Parsley
‘Unbecoming’ a Professional: The Role of Memory during Field Transitions in Japan and the USA by Ricardo Azambuja, Lisa Baudot, Saori Matsubara, Takahiro Endo, and Dana Wallace
Contestation over a Profession’s Memory: The UK Pharmacy Profession, 1880–1905 by Graeme Currie, Andrew Wild, and Andy Lockett
‘We Can Win this Fight Together’: Memory and Cross-Occupational Coordination by Sung-Chul Noh, Matthew C. B. Lyle, and Boram Do
List of People Who Reviewed for this Special Issue
