Apologies for cross-posting.
What happens to coordination, authority, and accountability when governance is partly delegated to code - and when the stewards of global digital infrastructure are working toward their own obsolescence?
Please join our Professional Development Workshop "Decentralized Ecosystems as Organizational Dilemmas: Algorithmic Governance and Its Limits" (session #20225)
When: Sunday, 2 August 2026, 8:00–10:30 AM ET
Location: Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Level 5, Salon J
Program: https://events.aom.org/events/aom-2026/session/f8Cx20DZbpZ_YkV1BMdMQ
The PDW is built around two live practitioner challenges brought by Theo Beutel (Ethereum Foundation) - real, unresolved governance dilemmas, opened up for collective inquiry:
Roundtable A - Ethereum Layer 1 governance: "Steering toward less need for steering." Can active coordination and opinionated choices today build an infrastructure that later depends less on its coordinators - or do they deepen dependence on stewards and experts? How can consequential influence remain visible and contestable without turning rough consensus into formal hierarchy?
Roundtable B - DAO and application-layer governance: "Accountability when code and people co-produce decisions." Human safeguards make decentralized governance safer but relocate discretion; automation makes commitments verifiable but harder to interrupt. When is hybrid governance a legitimate system of checks and balances - and when is it recentralization behind a decentralized interface?
Short scholarly anchor reactions, facilitated roundtable discussion, and practitioner reflections will follow each challenge, with contributions by Michel Avital (Copenhagen Business School), Ola Henfridsson (University of Miami), Ying-Ying Hsieh (Imperial College London), Alex Murray (University of Oregon), Paula Ungureanu (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia), and Youngjin Yoo (London School of Economics).
We treat blockchain as a frontier case rather than a niche: the session will distill design principles and a shared research agenda that travel to platforms, open-source communities, AI governance, and algorithmic management. Participants will leave with refined research questions emerging from a sustained dialogue between theory and practice.
Everyone is welcome - no advance preparation required. Come with your coffee and your hardest questions about organizing without hierarchy.
Organizers:
Carlotta Cochis (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
Gianlorenzo Meggio (Copenhagen Business School)
Yunjung Pak (University of Alberta)
Paula Ungureanu (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia)
We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia! #AOM2026
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Paula Ungureanu
Associate Professor
Department of Sciences and Methods for Engineering (DISMI)
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
Padiglione Morselli
Via Giovanni Amendola, 2, 42122 Reggio Emilia RE
Tel: (+39)0522522113
E:
paula.ungureanu@unimore.it------------------------------