People at the Heart of Projectification: Rethinking Agency, Identity, and Value Creation

Call for Papers

People at the Heart of Projectification: Rethinking Agency, Identity, and Value Creation

JOURNAL : International Journal of Managing Projects in Business

PUBLISHER: Emerald Publishing

SUBMISSION OPENS: 15 January 2026

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 November 2026

ABOUT THIS SPECIAL ISSUE

In recent decades, "projectification" has transformed organisations, economies, and societies, embedding project logic not only in business but also across the public, civic, and non-profit sectors. Projectification refers to the underlying changes caused by a growing emphasis on projects — about shifts in thinking and acting towards projects, rather than simply about managing them.

As project-based organising becomes increasingly ubiquitous, the importance of understanding the human dimension — including agency, identity, and value creation — grows ever more urgent. Yet existing scholarship has often prioritised systemic, organisational, or institutional perspectives at the expense of the individual and the diverse social contexts in which projectification unfolds.

This special issue aims to address this imbalance by highlighting the experiences, subjectivities, and contributions of people in the process of projectification. It addresses all those who directly or indirectly shape, contribute to, participate in, or are affected by this process — promoting an interdisciplinary and multidimensional dialogue on the role of the individual within projectification.

SCOPE & THEME AREAS

We invite submissions addressing (but not limited to) the following themes:

1. Agency in projectification — How do individuals implement and negotiate their agency in the context of increasing projectification, navigating between structure, temporality, and autonomy?

2. Identity in projectified work — How do individuals build and maintain their identities amid the fluidity and temporality of projectified work in complex social environments?

3. Value co-creation — How do people co-create and redefine value through their participation in and contribution to the ongoing projectification of society?

4. Personal and occupational development — What role do projects play in the development of people from childhood to old age, and is there a difference between personal and occupational development?

5. Education and participation — How do different levels of education and educational opportunities affect people's participation in projects and projectification?

6. Individual expectations and aspirations — What expectations, aspirations, and objectives do individuals pursue through their involvement in projects, project management, and projectification?

7. Impact of project engagement — What positive and/or negative impacts does engagement in projects — as temporary endeavours — have on the people involved?

8. Organisational and societal prerequisites — What conditions must organisations, governments, or societies create so that people engage in projects and turn them into success stories?

9. Limits of projectification — How much projectification can people tolerate, and is there a point at which over-projectification leads to de-projectification?

10. Cultural factors — How do cultural factors affect people's involvement in projects and projectification across different contexts?

11. Global differences in projectification — What are the main differences in projectification across the globe, and how does it influence individuals involved or eager to enter the project world?

12. Professional project management — benefit or detriment? — To what extent is the use of professional project management beneficial or detrimental to the implementation of projects across different areas of society?

GUEST EDITORS

Reinhard Wagner ✉️ Contact via journal submission system

Mladen Radujkovic ✉️ Contact via journal submission system

Taryn Bond-Barnard ✉️ Contact via journal submission system

Helgi Thor Ingason ✉️ Contact via journal submission system

Yannick Kalff ✉️ Contact via journal submission system

KEY DEADLINES & DATES

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

How to submit: Manuscripts must be submitted via ScholarOne Manuscripts, strictly following the journal's author guidelines.

Selecting the special issue: At the appropriate submission step, authors must select the special issue title from the drop-down menu in response to "Please select the issue you are submitting to."

Eligibility: Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication elsewhere while under review.

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