Social dreaming and ecocentric ethics: sources of non-rational insight in the face of climate change catastrophe

Abstract

The article considers the role of dreams as social, rather than individual, phenomena and suggests that as such they may serve as resources for ‘future imaginings’ with respect to potentially devastating consequences of climate change (and other transgressions of planetary boundaries). Adopting a socio-analytical perspective, it contemplates the possibility of a societal level ‘cosmology episode’ caused by catastrophic climate change; a critical point of rupture in the meaning-making process which leaves local rationalities in ruin. Drawing on a ‘representative anecdote’, the article finds allegorical parallels between the cultural collapse of a traditional indigenous culture and the impending threat of ecocrisis currently facing humanity. The possibilities of seeing and imagining offered by collective forms of dreaming are explored alongside development of a non-anthropocentric ethics. Our focus is on ways of sensing, thinking and talking about climate change that are less dependent on a rational conscious subject. The article thus enquires into what cultural means or resources might be available to (post)modern Western societies that, like the shamanic dream-vision of certain traditional cultures, might enable them to draw on non-anthropocentric sensibilities and organize responses to an impending cultural crisis. We conclude by offering Gordon Lawrence’s social dreaming matrix as one possible medium through which to imagine and see beyond climate change catastrophe.

Organizing in the Anthropocene

“…While organizational scholars have for some time focused on the natural world as a context for business activities (see, for example, Bansal and Hoffman, 2012), far fewer have sought to adopt a critical approach to the way in which changing Earth systems affect how we understand organizing and organizations (for exceptions, see Ergene et al, 2017;Gosling and Case, 2013;Whiteman et al, 2013;Wright and Nyberg, 2015). In this Special Issue of the journal Organization, we invited scholars to reflect on the huge and diverse implications that the Anthropocene brings to our understanding of organizations and organizing.…”

Organising in the Anthropocene: an ontological outline for ecocentric theorising

“…A rather small group of scholars, however, have discussed ecological questions related to organisations (e.g., Shrivastava, 1994;Jennings and Zandbergen, 1995;Purser et al, 1995), some with a focus on the economic organisation (Welford, 1995;Hart, 1995;Clair et al, 1996), for over two decades (for a summary, see Gladwin et al, 1995). More recently, continuations to these pioneering studies have emerged (Valente, 2012;Gosling and Case, 2013;Ezzamel and Willmott, 2014), but large-scale attention to ecological questions in organisation theory yet to come.…”

“…Thus, in addition to embedding social actors in the ecosystem (Whiteman and Cooper, 2000), recognising the interconnectedness of all actors in that ecosystem, (Valente, 2012;Newton, 2000), and advancing ethical considerations to encompass the non-human world (Gosling and Case, 2013;Ezzamel and Willmott, 2014), objects would have a metaphysical footing of their own. ÔObjects exist as autonomous units, but they also exist in conjunction with their qualities, accidents, relations, and movements without being reducible to theseÕ (Harman, 2009, p. 156).…”

“…While the call was not immediately taken up, a few organisational scholars have recently expressed signs of ecocentric theorising by embedding social actors in the ecosystem (Whiteman and Cooper, 2000), recognising the interconnectedness of all actors in the ecosystem (Valente, 2012;Newton, 2002), and advancing ethical considerations for the non-human world (Gosling and Case, 2013;Ezzamel and Willmott, 2014). Critics of ecocentrism, however, have continued to question the necessity and practicality of ecocentric thought, as well as the underpinnings of its worldview (Hanna, 1996).…”

Future imaginings: organizing in response to climate change

“…In this special issue, Gosling and Case (2013) provide an ideal illustration of the potential for re-appropriating the past to 'see' the future. They explore the allegorical parallels between the cultural collapse of indigenous Americans facing the catastrophe of European colonization and the contemporary threat of climate change.…”