INTRINSIC SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: EPISTEMES, SCIENCE, BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABILITY - Hardcover

Frank Birkin & Thomas Polesie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9814365009 ISBN 13: 9789814365000

Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc, 2011

Synopsis

Sustainable development sets the agenda for the 21st century. Human technological capability and needs mean that nature is and will be challenged and damaged in many ways. Whilst many social and technological innovations are being made to improve our survival prospects, they are likely to be insufficient to avoid continued social and ecological stress and the prospect of global tension if significant changes do not come about.The ideas in this book offer a new solution to sustainable development problems. They are concerned not with what we know but how we know, or rather how we order knowledge and create understanding in the human world.This book shows that some of the fundamental practices that shape modern society, especially in the business world, are the unwitting cause of unsustainable development. By extrapolating the epistemic analysis of Michel Foucault, a major social scientist, this book identifies a new episteme. It outlines a new way of ordering knowledge that better serves sustainable development.This pioneering book synthesizes the sciences of human and natural worlds and applies the findings to the creation of sustainable business models and equitable lifestyles for all.

About this title

Review

This interweaving makes the book both engaging and interesting as it invites the reader to 'know differently'. It is more than just interesting; it is very inspiring to see how Michel Foucault's ideas and theorizing from The Order of Things (1977) have been brought to bear to help construct a history not just of the present but of a possible future -- Ann-Christine Frandsen "Senior Lecturer in Accounting, Essex Business School, Essex University, UK"

This fascinating book takes us on a journey of thinking which can help us from doing accounting as 'just business', to doing it as part of a newly 'Just Business' where sustainable development will be simply accepted as something intrinsic. -- Keith Hoskin "Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK"

It is an ambitious task that the authors set out to undertake but I am obliged to say they have succeeded in their exploration. I think this book makes a major contribution to the much-needed task of trying to change what we teach and learn as we struggle with how to think and do business. -- Ann-Christine Frandsen "Senior Lecturer in Accounting, Essex Business School, Essex University, UK"

Edition details

• Publisher: World Scientific Pub Co Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 9814365009
• ISBN 13: 9789814365000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 353