Sustainable Development and Well-Being: A Philosophical Challenge

Abstract

This paper aims at gaining a better understanding of the inherent paradoxes within sustainability discourses by investigating its basic assumptions. Drawing on a study of the metaphoric references operative in moral language, we reveal the predominance of the 'well-being = wealth' construct, which may explain the dominance of the 'business case' cognitive frame in sustainability discourses (Hahn et al. in Acad Manag Rev 4015:18-42, 2015a). We incorporate economic well-being variables within a philosophical model of becoming well (Küpers in Cult Organ 11(3):221-231, 2005), highlighting the way in which these variables consistently articulate a combination of 'objective' and 'subjective' concerns. We then compare this broad understanding of well-being with the metaphors operative in the sustainable development discourse and argue that the sustainability discourse has fallen prey to an overemphasis on the 'business case'. We proceed to draw on Georges Bataille to challenge the predominance of these value priorities and to explore which mindshifts are required to develop a more comprehensive understanding of what is needed to enable 'sustainable development'.

Conceptualising Sustainability Using a Cognitive Mapping Method

“…More concerningly, Milne et al [25] view the metaphorical journey towards sustainability as an insufficient incremental change towards a goal that can never be reached without radical intervention. Agreeing with Milne, Painter-Moreland et al [26] view the journey metaphor as inherently dangerous as it provides the business sector with the flexibility to make a minimal immediate change, whilst appearing, with the aid of greenwashed sustainability reports, to be making significant progress towards sustainability. A contrasting view is that this inherent flexibility enables sustainability meaning to adapt to the prevailing conditions as it is not a rigid system of rules or predetermined outcome [27].…”

“…Unitary truth requires tension between sustainability's competing elements to be reconciled and eliminated, which is typically achieved by defaulting to the business-case approach, forcing sustainability projects to meet pre-set economic returns [28]. Underpinning the business case approach is the assumption that well-being is material wealth [26]; an assumption that would lead to an interpretation of the WCEDs needs-based definition of sustainability, as the need for material wealth. A holistic or integrative view applies paradoxical thinking to accommodate this tension by focusing on the interconnections between each sustainability element [29], integrated [22] into a holistic vision of sustainability that identifies preferred developmental paths that ensure intergenerational justice [5,24,30].…”

Leveraging Digital Intelligence for Community Well-Being

“…A logic encompassing the social and environmental systems that firms are embedded in could enable an integrative process capable of embracing the tension between economic, social, and environmental elements of the system (Gao and Bansal 2013). In order to facilitate this, the predominance of value priorities that equate well-being with wealth need to be challenged, while exploring mindsets that allow for a more comprehensive and expansive understanding of what well-being entails (Painter-Morland et al 2017). This has led organizational scholars to question the very purpose of the theories of management, and call for ongoing conversations that encourage a human turn towards management.…”

“…The field of social informatics, for instance, has made tacit knowledge processes (creation, sharing, and management) as well as ignorance processes such as the denial and obfuscation of knowledge (agnotology), explicit (Greyson 2019;Meyer et al 2019). In business studies the presence of 'wealth equals well-being' construct has been held responsible for the dominance of a cognitive frame related to 'business case' within discourses related to sustainability (Painter-Morland et al 2017;Hahn et al 2015). A business case, from a practitioner's perspective, is a bid for an investment in a project, idea, or initiative that promises to yield a suitably significant financial return to justify the investment (Carroll and Shabana 2010;Kurucz et al 2008).…”

Mudança de Postura?: A Conduta Cidadã no Uso de Sacola Plástica no Varejo

“…O consumidor pode ser incentivado a fazer com que o seu ato de consumo seja um ato de cidadania, ao escolher em que mundo quer viver (Viegas, 2010). Cada cidadão tem a capacidade de optar por produtos e serviços que satisfaçam suas necessidades tentando não afetar o bem-estar da coletividade, atual ou futura (Lipovetsky, 1989;Canclini, 2006;Painter-Morland, Demuijnck & Ornati, 2017).…”