Corporate Environmentalism, Epistemological Review & Ontological Position

Author(s):  
Shekhar Suman ◽  
Satyasiba Das
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Jones

This chapter reviews the history of green entrepreneurship, arguing that green entrepreneurship was shaped by four different temporal contexts between the mid-nineteenth century and the present day. Although there were significant achievements over the entire period, it was only in the most recent era that green business achieved legitimacy and scale. Green entrepreneurs often had religious and ideological motivations, but they were shaped by their institutional and temporal context. They created new markets and categories through selling their ideas and products, and by imagining the meaning of sustainability. They faced hard challenges, which encouraged clustering which provided proximity advantages and higher trust levels. Combining profits and sustainability has always been difficult, and the spread of corporate environmentalism in recent decades has not helped. Although commercial success often eluded pioneers, by a willingness to think outside of traditional boxes, they have opened up new ways of thinking about sustainability.


Author(s):  
Geoffrey Jones

This chapter examines the greening of large conventional firms since 1980, the acquisition of many green entrepreneurial firms, and the rise of “greenwashing.” While noting that this development appeared to signal the success of green business, and the scaling needed for sustainability to make a real impact, there were also major problems. In particular, there were frequent and large gaps between corporate rhetoric and reality, threatening consumer disillusion and making it harder for more genuinely green firms to make their distinctive case. Corporate environmentalism was also constrained by the huge pressure on firms to meet quarterly returns, making it hard for large corporations to pursue truly radical sustainability strategies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 509-525
Author(s):  
Dorothea Gädeke

Abstract Is normative theory grounded in ontology and if so, how? Taking a debate between Kwame Gyekye and Thaddeus Metz as my point of departure, my aim in this article is to show that something normative does indeed follow from ontological views: The social ontological, I maintain, circumscribes the normative without, however, fully determining its content. My argument proceeds in two steps: First, I argue that our social ontological position constrains what kind of normative theory we may plausibly defend. A relational ontology as defended by Gyekye entails a relational normative theory, whereas an atomist ontology calls for an individualist normative approach and a collectivist ontology for a strong communitarian one. Second, this link between the ontological and the normative has substantive implications for how to interpret the normative content of a theory; it entails interpreting normative values in light of the appropriate kind of normative thought. I illustrate the importance of this implication by showing that it suggests a decidedly relational reading of the core value of well-being in Gyekye’s moderate communitarianism, that resolves the alleged tension between communal and individual values in his account.


1995 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 1105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Starik ◽  
Halina Szejnwald Brown ◽  
Patrick Derr ◽  
Ortawin Renn ◽  
Allen L. White

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 74-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomokazu Ishikawa ◽  
Sonia Morán Panero

AbstractWith reference to two recent doctoral research projects on ELF, the present article examines the characterisation of language attitudes as either stable or variable evaluative phenomena, and provides a detailed account of methodological practices that may be favoured from each ontological position. The durability of language attitudes is more specifically conceptualised as a stable (but not enduring) construct directed to a linguistic phenomenon in one thesis, and as variable and emergent forms of evaluative social practice around a language-related issue in the other. With these two different approaches in conversation, the authors consider the extent to which stability and variability of language attitudes may be two sides of the same coin, and question whether it is safe to assume a priori the inferability of stable language attitudes from the observation of evaluative practice. This article evidences the need for ELF researchers working in this area to contemplate what and how it is being researched in the name of language attitudes while having awareness of possible alternatives in any given study.


Author(s):  
Jon Mills

Abstract In our dialogues over the nature of archetypes, essence, psyche, and world, I further respond to Erik Goodwyn’s recent foray into establishing an ontological position that not only answers to the mind-body problem, but further locates the source of Psyche on a cosmic plane. His impressive attempt to launch a neo-Jungian metaphysics is based on the principle of cosmic panpsychism that bridges both the internal parameters of archetypal process and their emergence in consciousness and the external world conditioned by a psychic universe. Here I explore the ontology of experience, mind, matter, metaphysical realism, and critique Goodwyn’s turn to Neoplatonism. The result is a potentially compatible theory of mind and reality that grounds archetypal theory in onto-phenomenology, metaphysics, and bioscience, hence facilitating new directions in analytical psychology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 79-89
Author(s):  
Mahendra Sapkota

Globally, power and leadership are considered as two unavoidable factors of social change and local development. In Nepal’s federal context, the nexus of power and leadership has been less addressed in academic research though most of the studies are focused on local governance. The present study attempts to analyze the nature of leadership and its power structure in the context of rural Nepal. It follows a critical ontological position of the development of power and leadership. Methodologically, a complete leadership of Dogana village in Suddhodhan Rural Municipality of Rupandehi district (Lumbini Province) was undertaken to assess the rural leadership. It is found that the most important factor for holding the rural leadership was ‘affiliation with the political party’, which was followed by ‘well-being ranking’ and ‘caste/ ethnic status’ of the leadership. The rural leaders used to change their policies and strategies to create and sustain power, such as doing multiple professions and building networks other than politics. The paper, therefore, concludes that a significant change occurred in leadership pattern and power structure of rural Nepal from informal to formal, and less inclusive to more inclusive and representative. Despite this, the changes are still elite-centric, politically vested, and economically favorable either to the upper-class people or middle-class mediators (bichauliyas). The study predicts that the contestations in leadership and power-sharing could be more critical in the days to come with the implementation of federalism in the rural context. The implication of this study largely relies on the context of local power structure and village politics in Nepal.


2001 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oana Branzei ◽  
Ilan Vertinsky ◽  
Takuya Takahashi ◽  
Weijiong Zhang

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document