Identity foundation in learned societies; a case study on the European Nuclear Society

Abstract

This thesis deals with the identity and identity formation of learned societies. The author addresses the question of whether current research on identity in organisations can be applied to learned societies. To investigate this question, the author conducted a case study of a European learned society, the European Nuclear Society. The case study approach was used, paired with an insider - outsider approach. The data was based on various sources, historical documents of the society, current documents and analyses of the society as well as interviews conducted with stakeholders around the society.Based on the case study, an abstraction of the results was carried out in order to derive suggestions for generally applicable approaches with regard to identity and the identity foundation in learned societies. It should be emphasised here that learned societies have a different founding objective to organisations and that learned societies only change their identity to a limited extent due to external influences. In addition, a weak identity often leads to the foundation of a new one.Finally, these findings were compared with current research on identity in organisations and the next steps for future research questions were defined.