It is widely suggested[citation needed] that CMS began with Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott's edited collection Critical Management Studies[1] in 1992.
The roots of CMS are contested but are connected to the series of UK Labour Process Conferences that began in 1983 and reflected the impact of Braverman's attempt to make Marxist categories central to understanding work organisations.
One trend in CMS has seen the incorporation of autonomist Marxist theory, first introduced to the English-speaking world by the work of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.
New CMS scholars using these theories have interests in proposing alternative non-capitalist forms of organizing work and life - often built around the notion of collective responsibility for the commons.
Wider impatience with market-managerial forms of organization occur commonly enough outside the business school, from anti-corporate protests to popular-media presentations of managers.
CMS attempts to articulate these voices within the business school, and to provide ways of thinking beyond current dominant theories and practices of organizations.
This extends to scholarship on anti- and post-capitalist alternatives,[7] including research on the social solidarity economy,[8] post-growth organizing,[9] and democratic economic planning.