Intrinsic Sustainable Development: Epistemes, Science, Business and Sustainability

This is a book that takes onboard one of the most important issue of today’s world; how we can do and think business differently in order to avoid the devastating ecological and human consequences that seem to follow in its wake. It is an ambitious task that the authors set out to undertake but I am obliged to say they have succeeded in their exploration. They argue that the possible solution lays much closer than we realise: within us and how we know. The argument is laid out with an unconventional style of storytelling where personal details about the authors’ own situated knowledge journeys, and their interactions with a Chinese PhD student of one of them, are interwoven with philosophically based analysis of the order of things today. This interweaving makes the book both engaging and interesting as it invites the reader to `know differently’. It is more than just interesting; it is very inspiring to see how Michel Foucault’s ideas and theorizing from The Order of Things (1977) have been brought to bear to help construct a history not just of the present but of a possible future. Being positive about the book does not mean that I am fully in agreement with the authors or their interpretations at all points, nor that I am not concerned about what they have excluded. But the book does what it sets out to do, and very successfully too. To me the important thing is that we should be taking on board this difficult topic and making space for discussions that can lead to the possibility, for each one of us who reads or talks about this book, of knowing and enacting sustainability differently. Today we have a major task before us, in seeking to include sustainability across all levels of business education. I think this book makes a major contribution to the much-needed task of trying to change what we teach and learn as we struggle with how to think and do business.
–Ann-Christine Frandsen, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, Essex Business School, Essex University, UK

This story of a journey of discovery has to be one of the most original books of recent times. Presented as an account of one person’s interrogation of the assumptions that lead to unsustainable behaviour, this erudite, readable, and never less than fascinating book marks a turning point in business thinking. Dive in, look around, and enjoy! –Professor Andrew Dobson, Keele University, UK

In recent decades, the responsibilities of producers, sorting, incineration and hazardous waste management have been regulated. This has created a general consensus in favour of recycling … The Stena Metall Group had a favourable position and to move into sustainable business in the 1980s using innovative solutions, the Group now converts waste from its customers into commodities of value. It is natural for us to support the ideas about intrinsic sustainability that are explored in this book. –John Lindkvist Vice CEO, Stena Mettal, Gothenburg

…this is one of the most unusual, surprising and, indeed, stimulating books that it has been my pleasure to read in recent years … if you have any pretentions to becoming any kind of decent scholar in social and environmental accounting, I suggest to get hold of a copy of this and spend at least a little time in the company of an honest, brave and intellectually ambitious piece of work. —Journal of the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting (CSEAR)