Eduardo Ibarra Colado

Posted On: May 21, 2013

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It is with deep regret and sadness that I write this note for I learnt today, May 21 2013 (Sydney time), that Eduardo Ibarra Colado has died in Mexico City after a period of illness. Eduardo was one of the finest minds in Organization Studies who made significant contributions to the discipline in both Spanish and English language contributions. Eduardo contributed major books on power Mito y poder en las organizaciones (1984, 1987) and the Mexican higher education system, La universidad en MÈxico hoy: gubernamentalidad y modernizacion (2001, 2003), for which he won awards; he explored, ceaselessly, the specificities of Latin American colonialism and their impact on organizations and for Organization Studies, perhaps most notably in his 2006 article in Organization, on “Organization Studies and Epistemic Coloniality in Latin America: Thinking Otherness from the Margins”, and wrote extensively on questions of ethics, globalization and theory. I was fortunate to work with him on a number of projects, notably the 1999 project, Global Management: Universal Theories, Local Realities.

Much more than his achievements in print were his great accomplishments as a person: a man of great integrity, not always easy to maintain in the context of Mexican universities and politics; a demanding supervisor of higher degree students who knew he expected the best for he was a scholar par excellence – nobody ever gave me better feedback on ideas than Eduardo and I valued his learning, knowledge, and above all, his friendship, deeply. In Oxaca and in Cuernavaca he organized two extremely successful APROS meetings.  He was a great supporter of APROS and later, LAEMOS and EGOS.  Eduardo was a man of great taste for music, art and Mexico, in all its complexity, chaos and glory; a loving family man, with a fine legacy in Diego Alfonso and Ximena, who I am sure will be a source of support for Carmen, his partner in life.  I shall miss him enormously and the many others who knew him will mourn him similarly. A singular, powerful and important voice has been stilled but his influence will live on through his legacy as a man, an intellectual and as a friend.

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Stewart Clegg 21/05/13