Our People

Prof Paul du Gay

Fellow, Visiting Fellow

Professor, Department of Organization (IOA), Copenhagen Business School, Professor and Director of Research Impact, School of Business and Management, Royal Holloway, University of London

PhD (OU), BA (Hons), MA (Durham)

Paul du Gay is a sociologist and organisational analyst with a particular interest in bureaucracy and public service, the ethics of public office-holding, and the history and continuing significance of ‘classical’ organization theory. He has published widely in sociology, cultural studies, organisation studies, and public administration. He is the author, inter alia, of Consumption and Identity at Work (Sage), In Praise of Bureaucracy: Weber/Organisation/Ethics (Sage), The Values of Bureaucracy (ed.) (Oxford University Press), Organizing Identity: persons and organisations ‘after theory’ (Sage), For Formal Organisation: the past in the present and future of Organisation Studies (Oxford University Press, with S. Vikkelsø), and For Public Service: State, Office and Ethics (Routledge, with Thomas Lopdrup Hjorth).

Paul was Vice Dean (Research) at The Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University from 1999-2003; Co-Director of the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance at the Open University, from 2004-2007; Academic Director of the Copenhagen Business School Business in Society Public-Private Platform, from 2010-2016; and Director of Research in the School of Business and Management, at Royal Holloway, University of London from 2017-2021. He was seconded to the Royal Danish Defence College as Research Guest Professor for the academic year 2021-22. Paul has held Visiting Research Fellowships and Professorships at the London School of Economics, The Research School in Social Sciences at the Australian National University, The University of the West of England, The University of Melbourne, Lund University, and the University of Oslo. From 2006-2014 he was President of Research Committee 17, Sociology of Organization, The International Sociological Association.

Paul is currently Director of Research Impact in the School of Business and Management at Royal Holloway. His present research focuses on Reason of State as a political morality for the present.