The Body and Business Ethics

Editors

  • Ajnesh Prasad, Audencia Business School
  • Eric Li, University of British Columbia
  • Natalia Vershinina, Audencia Business School
  • Alejandro Centeno, American University of Beirut

Description

This special issue examines the intersection of embodiment and business ethics within organizational contexts. The call addresses how bodies are shaped by and through work, labor, and market systems, exploring the ethical implications of emotional labor, physical strain, commodification, and disciplinary practices. It seeks to move business ethics beyond abstract and conceptual frameworks toward understanding how embodied experiences and corporeal practices generate ethical dilemmas in organizational life.

The special issue welcomes diverse methodological approaches to investigating embodied labor across various industries including modeling, sports, healthcare, and entertainment. Contributions should interrogate how organizational norms regulate bodies in ways that reflect broader inequalities related to gender, race, and class, while also considering worker resistance and alternative theoretical frameworks such as feminist ethics and affect theory that center the lived body in ethical analysis.

Potential topics

  • Ethical dimensions of emotional and relational labor through embodied experience
  • The ethics of body commodification in market-driven labor contexts
  • The embodied toll of labor and the ethical responsibilities of organizations
  • The gendered, racialized, and classed regulation of bodies in organizations
  • Participatory, sensory, or arts-based methods to research embodiment and ethics
  • New theoretical perspectives on embodiment in business ethics