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Beyond Mechanism: An Organicist Business Education for the Anthropocene

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Disciplining the Undisciplined?

Part of the book series: CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance ((CSEG))

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Abstract

Human actions have pushed planetary systems beyond their normal range of operation, bringing forth a new geological epoch of its own making. The Anthropocene —the age of humankind—is argued here to represent a failure of the higher education system (and business schools in particular) to prepare society for the challenges of transforming towards true social -ecological sustainability . In turn, it will be demonstrated that adherence to normative ‘mechanistic ’ modes of thought has prevented mainstream business education from effectively engaging with this task, and that a reorientation towards an organicist worldview is required. In doing so, the contours of business education are redefined to embrace holism, social-ecological complexity and ethical care for nature. Two organicist principles—social-ecological systems thinking and positive ecological reciprocity—are presented here as a starting point to imagine a business education fit for purpose in the twenty-first century.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    More recently, the ‘Great Acceleration’—the period of massive economic expansion commencing in the middle of the twentieth century—has been put forward as the most likely start date of the Anthropocene (Steffen et al. 2015a).

  2. 2.

    The four informal laws of ecology first articulated by physicist and ecologist Barry Commoner (1971) are as follows: (1) everything is connected to everything else; (2) everything must go somewhere; (3) nature knows best; and (4) nothing comes from nothing (i.e. ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia

    Neville R. Ellis

  2. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Responsibility, Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Neville R. Ellis

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  1. Neville R. Ellis
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Correspondence to Neville R. Ellis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

    Martin Brueckner

  2. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

    Rochelle Spencer

  3. Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, School of Business and Governance, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

    Megan Paull

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Ellis, N.R. (2018). Beyond Mechanism: An Organicist Business Education for the Anthropocene. In: Brueckner, M., Spencer, R., Paull, M. (eds) Disciplining the Undisciplined?. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71449-3_2

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