Communicative distortions in sustainability reports: an analysis based on habermasian thinking

Abstract

Sustainability reports are ways of expressing what organizations understand by sustainability. Critical perspectives have pointed to the possible manipulative use of reporting practices. Based on Jürgen Habermas’ thought, this research applies the notion of communicative distortion to analyze sustainability reports of 4 corporations listed in the ISE 2020 portfolio, scrutinizing distortions of 4 orders: truth, sincerity, legitimacy, and intelligibility. The results alert to the risk that the reports can instrumentalize the idea of sustainability, printing the corporate vision on it. This way of proceeding, dismissing mutual understanding, removes sustainability from the discursive (Habermasian) scope, draining it of meaning.