(Un)Sustainability and Organization Studies: Towards a Radical Engagement

In this essay, we trace the evolution of the field of sustainability in management and organization studies and narrate its epistemological twists and turns. Concerned by the current trajectory that tends to diminish a focus on political concerns, we propose a new research agenda, an ecological case...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization studies Vol. 42; no. 8; pp. 1319 - 1335
Main Authors: Ergene, Seray, Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby, Hoffman, Andrew J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.08.2021
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Academic disciplines
Anthropocene
Epistemology
Interdisciplinary aspects
Interdisciplinary research
Organization studies
Research design
Sustainability
Anthropocene
engaged scholarship
epistemology
interdisciplinarity
sustainability
ontology
ISSN:0170-8406, 1741-3044
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this essay, we trace the evolution of the field of sustainability in management and organization studies and narrate its epistemological twists and turns. Concerned by the current trajectory that tends to diminish a focus on political concerns, we propose a new research agenda, an ecological case for business, that transforms our paradigmatic orientation in four shifts: (1) altering our epistemological lenses from managerial to critical perspectives; (2) altering our ontological lenses from realist to relational view; (3) changing the way we design and conduct research from discipline-focused to interdisciplinary knowledge; and (4) transforming our scholarly stance from value-neutral to engaged scholarship. We argue that these shifts have capacities to overcome the conceptual limitations of the business case and, more fundamentally, help us question our scholarly positioning to the ongoing socio-ecological crises.
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ISSN:0170-8406
1741-3044
DOI:10.1177/0170840620937892