2 June 2010 ■ Project Management Journal ■ DOI: 10.1002/pmj In June 2009, the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM) hosted a 2-day research conference under the theme of Project Management and Polar Expeditions: What Can We Learn? It brought together researchers from France, Quebec, and Sweden representing a diversity of disciplines (e.g., project management, logistics, psycholo- gy, sociology, and anthropology). The conference was held under the umbrella of the Project Management Research Chair of UQAM and the Research Center on Management in Clermont-Ferrand of Clermont University and Clermont Graduate School of Management. This research center has been working for more than 10 years on polar expeditions. This Project Management Journal special issue gathers together the 8 best papers from the 15 that were presented. Why create such an event in the project management research community? The growing complexity of proj- ects and the inherent uncertainty often render tradition- al practices and processes inefficient and ineffective. Traditional practices are based upon complete knowl- edge up front, while in reality, goals and methods develop during the execution of a project in extreme environ- ments. Polar expeditions offer good learning opportuni- ties. First, they are in a confined environment in many aspects: geographical, social, economical, etc. It is easier to concentrate on the evolution of this type of project from the very first idea up to the complete closure. Second, risks are everywhere and not all of them can be managed, yet consequences could be dramatic, resulting in life or death situations. Polar expeditions are managed within a high level of uncertainty, which is often the case in project management in “real” life. They are prepared with extreme rigor but must adapt continuously. Based on these two points, we believe that polar expeditions are ideal for research in project management representing an opportunity to learn about managing the unexpected. In recent years, several reflections have been initiat- ed and attempts have been made to position the field of project management as a legitimate object of research per se within organization theory. A common thread from these reflections is that there is no such thing as a unique theory of project management, but rather multi- ple dimensions can be identified, which are anchored in a wide variety of perspectives. Research typologies have further been proposed to describe the current state of the art in the field of project management. This variety can be interpreted as part of an evolving domain not yet stabilized but in action. But the most important quest should be to provide an integrative model to sustain the variety of approaches that at the same time provides a coherent view of the entire field. The recent conference held in Montreal took part in this movement by proposing an approach that addresses directly the current debate within the field of project management and at the same time going away from its traditional ground. Articles in this special issue have been selected to span the overall content of the research program. Each article presents a particular perspective, but altogether the articles form an integrative and com- plementary research approach to project management. They are presented in four groups: 1. Philosophical foundations (see Bredillet). In the first article, Bredillet addresses the ontological and episte- mological foundations in the quest for an integrative approach. He seizes this occasion to put together his thoughts on the project management field considered here as the unit of analysis. With this article, Bredillet provides a meta-modeling approach based on Le Moigne’s (2003) claim for “modeling to understand that is to do ingeniously.” This approach aims at rec- onciling paradoxes within the dynamics of project management. 2. Theoretical perspectives and ground application in polar expeditions (see Aubry & Lièvre; Garel & Lièvre; Lecoutre & Lièvre; Récopé, Lièvre, & Rix-Lièvre). This group of articles explores polar expeditions under social network, ambidexterity, and globally, and moves away from the more traditional theoretical approaches on project management. In these articles, expeditions are considered as temporary organizations answering the characteristics of projects. The main thread of these four articles is that they all recognize the pres- ence of paradoxes. Garel and Lièvre present a polar expedition by sea kayak in which both authors partici- pated. The notion of controversies from Bruno Latour (2005) is used to describe the project dynamics. From this approach, it is possible to draw lessons on team makeup, knowledge management, and the relation- ship between preparation and actual implementation Guest Editorial Monique Aubry, University of Quebec at Montreal Pascal Lièvre, Clermont University and ESC Clermont Graduate School of Management Brian Hobbs, University of Quebec at Montreal Project Management in Extreme Environments Project Management Journal, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2–3 © 2010 by the Project Management Institute Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pmj.20185 02-03PMJ1105.qxd 5/11/10 2:04 PM Page 2