In the shadow of empire: Global Britain and the UK business school. (May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boussebaa, Mehdi
• Other Names: Bristow Alexandra guest-editor.; Robinson Sarah guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Organization. Volume 27:Number 3(2020:May)
• Page Start: 483
• Page End: 493
• Publication Date: 2020-05
• Subjects: Brexit -- free trade -- Global Britain -- globalization -- imperialism -- postcolonial melancholia; Organizational sociology -- Periodicals; Organization -- Periodicals; 302.35
• DOI: 10.1177/1350508419855700
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1350-5084

Abstract

In this essay, I scrutinize the 'Global Britain' project championed by the UK government since the Brexit vote and reflect on the role played by business schools in it. My argument is twofold. First, I contend the project is bound up with British imperialism, being at once the expression of a melancholic attachment to the colonial Empire of yesteryear and part of a long-standing effort to renew Britain's imperial greatness in the so-called 'postcolonial' era. Second, I maintain that business schools, while notionally anti-Brexit, are complicit in the Global Britain project by virtue of propagating elements of its imperialist discourse. I conclude with some reflections on our role as scholars and educators in fostering debate on this project and challenging its imperialist underbelly.