The Closing of Critique, Pluralism and Reflexivity: A Response to Hardy and Grant and Some Wider Reflections

This article is a follow-up of Alvesson and Kärreman (2011a), which was in itself a follow-up of Alvesson and Kärreman (2000), and a response to a critique of the former by Hardy and Grant (2012). The critique is addressed directly and the logic behind it investigated critically. The article also addresses wider concerns regarding the politics of research and publishing and the conditions of critique at the present time. The pressure and eagerness to get published lead to strong subspecialization and an inclination to build research approaches within which authors are inclined to reproduce shared assumptions and be unwelcome to critical explorations. The article points to the risk of assumption-challenging work being marginalized through the anticipation of critique leading to hostile reactions and specialized, politically motivated reviewers blocking the publication of far-reaching critique.