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Sub-theme 15: [SWG 15] System Change, Not Climate Change: Mobilizing for System-Level Change to Address the Environmental Crisis

Convenors:
Paul S. Adler
University of Southern California, USA
Ana María Peredo
University of Ottawa, Canada
Pilar Acosta
École Polytechnique, France

Call for Papers

Humanity is indeed at a crossroads. We have been slow to recognize the environmental crisis, but awareness is now dawning that hugely consequential choices will need to be made in the coming years, at every scale from the individual, to the firm, to national and international governance. So far, responses have been entirely inadequate to the magnitude of the challenge (United Nations, 2022). But how do we mobilize the energy for a more robust response?
 
The premise of our Standing Working Group 15 at EGOS is that as scholars we need to pay more attention to the system-level factors – as distinct from the individual or firm-level factors – that have created the climate crisis, and to the system-level responses that are need. In the previous meetings of our SWG, we considered theoretical frames that shed light on the systemic origins of our assault on the environment. We then considered the impediments that exist at that systemic level to recognizing and responding to the looming crisis. That led us to an attempt to identify and examine alternative systems for organizing economic life that could support a sustainable future. At the 2024 Colloquium, we will build on these earlier discussions to explore the pathways that would create such a future. It is clear that the ‘business sustainability-as-usual’ approach that dominates our field is inadequate to the task. So how do we get from here to there?
 
The most vocal voices demanding a system-level response to the environmental crisis are not political leaders and governments, but social and political movements. We need to understand better the organization and dynamic of these movements, their demands, and how they interact with each other, as well as with industries and government to advance their causes (see Soule & King, 2008; de Bakker et al., 2013; Martínez-Alier et al., 2014; Temper et al., 2015). At the same time, we need to explore how other civil society actors, such as the scientific community, can push for a more adequate response to climate change. We also need different relational ontologies that can facilitate imagining different human-nature relationships (Banerjee & Arjailes, 2021).
 
A key concern in mobilizing for system-level change is climate justice because climate change has disproportionately harmful impacts on poorer populations, Black and other people of color across the world Those that have contributed the least to the problem are dying and suffering the most. Thus, political struggles for climate justice must be central to our inquiries on system level changes (Ergene et al., 2021).
 
For our sub-theme in Milan, we invite submissions that explore the activities and strategic actions of a variety of actors aiming at the system-level changes we so urgently need. We invite papers that use any of a wide variety of theoretical and disciplinary lenses. Among the possible topics are:

  • How can disparate social movements such as unions and climate activists overcome their differences to advance sytem level changes that can ensure a just transition?

  • How can scholars and scientists contribute?

  • What role can progressive business leaders play?

  • What can we learn from Indigenous ways of organizing about how to mobilize for change?

  • What new relational ontologies are required to facilitate system level changes?

  • How can we foreground environmental and racial justice in system level change frameworks?

  • How can government and the state be opened up to civil society actors’ initiatives to accelerate the green transition?
     

References

  • Banerjee, S.B., & Arjaliès, D.L. (2021): “Celebrating the End of Enlightenment: Organization Theory in the Age of the Anthropocene and Gaia (and why neither is the solution to our ecological crisis). Organization Theory, 2 (4); https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211036714
  • de Bakker, F.G.A., den Hond, F., King, B., & Weber, K. (2013): “Social movements, civil society and corporations: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead.” Organization Studies, 34 (5–6), 573–593.
  • Ergene, S., Banerjee, S.B., & Hoffman, A. (2021): “(Un)Sustainability and organization studies: Towards a radical engagement.” Organization Studies, 42 (8), 1319–1335.
  • Martínez-Alier, J., I. Anguelovski, I., Bond, P. del Bene, D., Demaria, F., Gerber, J.-F., Greyl, L., Haas, W., Healy, H., Marín-Burgos, V., Ojo, G., Porto, M., Rijnhout, L., Rodríguez-Labajos, B., Spangenberg, J., Temper, L., Warlenius, R., & Yánez, I. (2014): “Between activism and science: Grassroots concepts for sustainability coined by environmental justice organizations.” Journal of Political Ecology, 21 (1), 19–60.
  • Peredo, A.M., McLean, M., & Tremblay, C. (2019): “Indigenous social innovation: What is distinctive? And a research agenda.” In: G. George, T. Baker, P. Tracey & H. Joshi (eds.): Handbook of Inclusive Innovation: The Role of Organizations, Markets and Communities in Social Innovation. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 107–128.
  • Temper, L., del Bene, D., & Martínez-Alier, J. (2015): “Mapping frontiers and front lines of global environmental justice: The EJ Atlas.” Journal of Political Ecology, 22 (1), 255–278.
  • United Nations (2022): Africa: “Response to climate crisis doesn’t match ‘magnitude of the challenge.” Retrieved from: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129477

Paul S. Adler is currently Harold Quinton Chair of Business Policy, and Professor of Management and Organization, Sociology, and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California, USA. He has published widely in academic journals, edited several books, and most recently published “The 99 Percent Economy: How Democratic Socialism can overcome the Crises of Capitalism” (Oxford University Press, 2019). Paul is former President of the Academy of Management.
Ana María Peredo is a Canada Research Chair & Professor of Social and Inclusive Entrepreneurship at the Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada. She is a student of grassroots organizing, including indigenous, co-operatives, community-based enterprises and social economy organizations.
Pilar Acosta is Maitre de Conférences in the Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship department at École Polytechnique in Palaiseau, France. Her work has been published in international journals such as ‘Organization Studies’ and the ‘Journal of Business Ethics’, book chapters and international conferences. Pilar’s research focuses on the evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability-related practices in developing countries from both a historical approach and an organizational perspective.