Abstract
Since the first UN Conference on Sustainability in Stockholm (1972), sustainability management (henceforth abbreviated as SM) has had three focal areas: entrepreneurship, the environment and the social needs of present and future generations. Combining entrepreneurship with respect for socio-environmental priorities is not evident. Therefore not only rationality is necessary but also wisdom (Opdebeeck 2013). Moreover, a recent trend in management that combines sustainability and wisdom is exploring the potentially fruitful bridge between sustainability management and spirituality. In this paper, the nature of this kind of bridge building is further explored as it appears nowadays to be of central importance to sustainable entrepreneurship that searches for wisdom. During the last few decades Christian and Eastern sources of spirituality like Buddhism and Taoism have frequently proved capable of stimulating the development of SM theories. One can also wonder whether and how in the West, Jewish and Islamic sources of wisdom inspire sustainable entrepreneurship.
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- 1.
Inspiration for this chapter was found in K. Verrycken (2011, pp. 963–973).
- 2.
E.F. Schumacher also worked this out in his “A” Guide for the Perplexed (1977), probably not coincidentally almost exactly the same title as Maimonides’ “The” Guide for the Perplexed.
- 3.
M. Olson posits that unless the number of persons in a group is relatively small, or unless force or any other means is used to make individuals act in their common interest, rational individuals who have their own interests at heart will not collaborate in the realization of common or group interests (Olson 1994, p. 2).
- 4.
For a detailed survey, see F. Manuel (1979).
- 5.
The most important point for Plato was that man should live according to those principles, but Plato himself was not at all sure of the practical feasibility of the utopian state he elaborated. See Plato (1973, pp. 368–369).
- 6.
Saint-Simon opted to provide free education to the children of workers to stimulate forms of worker co-ownership. In the context of cooperatives, Owen also emphasized the importance of providing education to the children of workers.
- 7.
After Gandhi came to know Ruskin’s work as a student in England he described Ruskin’s Unto This Last as “the one book that brought about an instantaneous practical transformation in my life” (Gandhi 1927, p. 22). Hobson further developed Ruskin’s insights for the industrialized world. Gandhi did this for the less-developed world. Gandhi stated, on the subject of modern technology: “I am not fighting machinery as such, but the madness of thinking that machinery saves labor. Men save labor although thousands of them are without work and die of hunger on the streets(…). At the present the machine is helping a small minority to live on the exploitation of the masses” (quoted in Madan 1927, p. 134).
- 8.
In another strand of the utopian economic pre-paradigm, humanistic socialism, William Morris clearly posited the need for small, clearly delineated units of administration.
- 9.
J. de Sismondi (1773–1842), another adherent of humanistic socialism, was vehemently opposed to any form of excessively large-scale industrialization.
- 10.
In the tradition of anarchism, L. Kohr states in his book, (1957), that the most important economic problems of our time are caused by the excessive sizes of nations.
- 11.
It should be admitted though that Kropotkin also recognized de facto that large scale operations are indispensable for undertaking a number of activities.
- 12.
Even if one were to try to locate authors belonging to the Christian solidarity school (like J. Buchez (1796–1865), F. Huet (1814–1869), and Charles Kingsley (1819–1875)) inside the utopian economic pre-paradigm, this Christian source of inspiration remains a marginal influence in the greater whole of pre-paradigmatic utopian theories.
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Opdebeeck, H. (2015). Spiritual Sustainability Management. In: Zsolnai, L. (eds) The Spiritual Dimension of Business Ethics and Sustainability Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11677-8_3
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