Publishing on urgent and consequential matters: The special section and Management Learning

We are pleased to introduce this issue of Management Learning. As this issue introduces a new section to the journal, we thought it would be appropriate to offer some introductory remarks.

This editorial is followed by the introduction to the Special Section, which is authored by Grace Gao et al. (2026). Gao and colleagues diligently curated our journal’s inaugural Special Section, devoted to the phenomenon of “(Un)learning from the Margins in Management and Organization Research.” We extend our gratitude to the guest editorial team as they were responsible for managing all aspects of the Special Section, including overseeing the review process and delivering editorial decisions. Ultimately, they accepted two articles for the Special Section—Andrews et al. (2026) investigate the timely subject matter of Indigenization, while Trägårdh and Jørgensen (2026) develop an account of how writing a thesis can cultivate conceptual and inclusive thinking through storytelling. Both the accepted articles advance past discourses on decolonization that have unfolded in this journal (Śliwa et al., 2025). As Gao et al. (2026) remark in their editorial, both the accepted articles in the Special Section aim to decolonize management learning and education by, among other things, reconsidering what counts as rigor in management and organizational research.

Inspired by the success of this Special Section, we are open to publishing future work in Management Learning under this format. Specifically, we would welcome proposals from prospective scholars interested in curating Special Sections on timely and important topics that would be of interest to the readership of the journal. If a proposal is accepted, the team would then have the opportunity to edit the Special Section, with the intention that the section would ultimately yield two or three impactful articles. Again, we are especially interested in Management Learning serving as a platform to explore topics that are not only germane to the journal’s remit but are urgent and consequential. Prospective curators are invited to reach out to the Editors-in-Chief to discuss ideas.

The Special Section is followed by three original articles: Anne Stouby Persson (2026) develops the concept of sympathetic knowing in an empirical study of a high-stress job context in Denmark; Nicole Ferry and Eric Guthey (2026) offer reflexive provocation as a way to enrich critical leadership education; and Katie Elizabeth Green (2026) identifies the emergence of collective leadership in an online community in the UK. These original articles are followed by a provocations essay by Janne Tienari (2026) on the burgeoning topic of artificial intelligence. Contributing to past debates on AI in the journal (e.g. Barros et al., 2023; Krammer, 2025), Tienari presents a thought-provoking autoethnography on how critical reflexive inquiry provided him with a means to navigate the human–artificial intelligence interaction. This issue also includes book reviews by Ari Kuisman, Gabrielle Durepos and Manuel Ramirez.

Finally, we conclude this issue with an editorial inspired by the recent amendments made to the Financial Times 50 journal list. Co-authored by Abdellatif et al. (2026), the editorial calls on scholars who are concerned with the institutional authority of journal quality lists to dislocate its power by taking purposeful action that moves beyond rhetorical critique.

Happy reading!