The leading organizational researcher Barbara Czarniawska passed away on April 7th at the age of 75. As a scholar, she was extremely productive and creative and her work had a large significance for colleagues from many different disciplines worldwide. Together with Guje Sevón, her work was very important to shape what Guje and Barbara called Scandinavian institutionalism, that developed in a vibrant community with a strong centre at SCANCOR. For Scandinavian Institutionalism, Barbara’s work with  translating insights from Actor-Network Theory to organization studies, and institutional theory in particular, was crucial to develop her own theory of organizing.

Barbara’s wide-reaching scholarship was inspired by anthropology, ethnology, studies of technology and society, literature, to name a few areas. During all her academic career, she was dedicated to field studies and moved by deep curiosity about societal phenomenon, which took her often to new sites of study, like large cities, news agencies, academia, popular culture, spies and the pandemic. The results of her field studies enabled her to continue theorizing, primarily with her foundation in pragmatism which opened up new insights and reflections on the unexpected.

Her work significantly contributed to shape the narrative turn in organization studies and widely qualitative methods, with techniques such as shadowing and notions like action-nets and ergonography. Her extensive publications will serve as a source of inspiration for many generations of future researchers.