Since 2019, I have been working at Utrecht University School of Governance, having joined Utrecht University from Massey Business School in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since September 2023, I have been Chair of the Work and Organising chair group.

My research is situated at the intersection of Critical Organization Studies, critical political economy and postcapitalist studies. At its core is an interest in how organisations and organising can contribute to transformations beyond capitalism. I study alternative, activist and community-based forms of organising not simply as alternatives to dominant organisational forms, but as sites through which existing institutions, economic livelihoods and market forces can be challenged, reconfigured and potentially transformed.

A central question running through my research is therefore how alternatives transform institutions and market relations. I examine how postcapitalist practices emerge and develop within, against and beyond existing institutional and economic arrangements; how they create different ways of organising production, work, exchange and value relations and collective life; and under what conditions their transformative effects can extend beyond particular organisations or communities. This involves studying different forms and scales of institutional transformation, from grassroots and prefigurative experimentation to processes through which alternative practices reshape established organisations, public institutions, markets and wider societal arrangements.

Rather than treating alternative organising as an end in itself, I use it as an entry point for understanding the possibilities and contradictions of postcapitalist transformation. I examine the power relations that reproduce economic inequality, social exclusion, and ecological unsustainability while exploring how alternative organisational practices can disrupt these relations and contribute to more democratic, socially just, and ecologically sustainable institutional arrangements.

An important strand of this agenda concerns the transformation of work and employment relations. Within the Work and Organising chair group, I am particularly interested in the possibilities for democratising work, worker participation and collective organisation, and in social movement unionism as a form through which labour struggles can connect workplace transformation with wider movements for social, economic and ecological change. 

My approach to academic work is informed by the idea of critical praxis: connecting research, teaching and societal engagement with communities and organisations working towards social and institutional change. My research therefore frequently involves collaboration with activist, civil-society, grassroots and community organisations, both to understand emerging alternatives and to explore how academic knowledge and infrastructures can contribute to their transformative capacities.

This approach has also shaped my academic leadership and educational work. From its launch until 2026, I (co-)coordinated the international Master's programme Organising Social Impact, which brings organisation studies into close interaction with societal practice and engages students with organisations working towards social change.

Building on collaborations with partners involved in Organising Social Impact, I also (co-)initiated AndersUtrecht, a transdisciplinary network connecting grassroots initiatives, civil society organisations, social change organisations and academics. AndersUtrecht represents an important academic and institutional innovation in my work: rather than approaching societal organisations primarily as research subjects or external stakeholders, the network develops longer-term infrastructures for collaboration, mutual learning, knowledge co-production and experimentation with alternative forms of organising. It provides a space in which academic, activist, and practitioner knowledge can interact around questions of postcapitalism, sustainability transformation and social change.

This builds on a longer-standing commitment to creating connections between academic and activist communities. In Aotearoa New Zealand, I initiated the Social Movements, Resistance and Social Change Conference in 2014. Held until 2020, the conference sought to create a bridge between academics and activists.

Within Utrecht University, I also contribute to the strategic theme Pathways to Sustainability, where I serve on the board and co-lead Transforming Cities. Through these roles, I work on strengthening connections between organisation scholarship, sustainability transformations, transdisciplinary research, and societal engagement.

Internationally, I have been actively involved in building scholarly communities around critical, alternative and transformative approaches to organisation and management. Between 2019 and 2024, I served in executive leadership roles within the Academy of Management Critical Management Studies Division, including as Division Co-Chair. I currently co-lead the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS) Standing Working Group on Alternative Organizations and Social Transformation, which brings together scholars interested in alternative organisational forms, postcapitalist organising and their potential contribution to broader institutional and societal transformation.

My current editorial roles include serving as an Associate Editor of Organization, a member of the Editorial Review Board of Academy of Management Learning & Education, and an advisory board member of Counterfutures. From 2016 to 2025, I was a member of the editorial collective of ephemera: theory and politics in organization. I previously served as Book Review Editor of Labour & Industry and was involved in CMS InTouch.

My research, usually developed through collegial and collective scholarship, has been published in journals including Human Relations, Management Learning, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Journal of Business Ethics, Gender, Work & Organization, Organization, ephemera, Culture and Organization, Industrial Relations Journal, and Relations industrielles/Industrial Relations. I received the Early Career Award for Distinction in Research from Massey Business School in 2019 and the Academy of Management Critical Management Studies Division's Best Paper in Critical Business Ethics Award in 2018 for joint work with Fahreen Alamgir.

I hold ius promovendi and currently co-supervise two PhD candidates, Luca Hopman and Sophie Bloemen. I previously co-supervised two PhD researchers to completion at Massey University:

Omer Nazir: Critical insights into modern slavery: Case of debt bonded labour in Indian brick kilns (2021)

Steve Scott: Running Amok – The Diary of the Hysteric: business education, the Self, & other oxymorons (2021)