Intrinsic Sustainable Development
Epistemes, Science, Business and Sustainability
by Frank Birkin & Thomas Polesie
"This is a book that takes onboard one of the most important issue of today's world; how we can do and think business differently in order to avoid the devastating ecological and human consequences that seem to follow in its wake. It is an ambitious task that the authors set out to undertake but I am obliged to say they have succeeded in their exploration. They argue that the possible solution lays much closer than we realise: within us and how we know. The argument is laid out with an unconventional style of storytelling where personal details about the authors' own situated knowledge journeys, and their interactions with a Chinese PhD student of one of them, are interwoven with philosophically based analysis of the order of things today. 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. Being positive about the book does not mean that I am fully in agreement with the authors or their interpretations at all points, nor that I am not concerned about what they have excluded. But the book does what it sets out to do, and very successfully too. To me the important thing is that we should be taking on board this difficult topic and making space for discussions that can lead to the possibility, for each one of us who reads or talks about this book, of knowing and enacting sustainability differently. Today we have a major task before us, in seeking to include sustainability across all levels of business education. 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
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