TY - JOUR

T1 - Organizing Sustainably: Introduction to the Special Issue

AU - Delbridge, Rick

AU - Helfen, Markus

AU - Pekarek, Andreas

AU - Schüßler, Elke

AU - Zietsma, Charlene

N1 - Special Issue: Organizing Sustainably: Actors, Institutions, and Practices. © The Author(s) 2023. Funding: The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

PY - 2024/1/1

Y1 - 2024/1/1

N2 - To confront the climate crisis requires fundamental system change in order to break the convention of relentless economic exploitation of nature. In this Special Issue we extend understanding of the opportunities for an organizing perspective on sustainability in order that organization studies might contribute more effectively to the challenges of organizing sustainably. This organizing perspective is particularly sensitive to (1) a variety of forms and practices of sustainable organizing in different societal spheres and on different levels, (2) the social institutions, logics and value systems in which these forms and practices are embedded, (3) the power and politics of promoting (or blocking) sustainable organization, and (4) the ways in which work, voice, participation, and inclusion are organized and contribute to developing societal capabilities. These features formed the basis of our original call for papers and we review selected literature on sustainability, including the contribution of organization studies and the articles in this Special Issue, through this organizing perspective. In so doing we identify four key themes of a future research agenda that builds from the foundations of existing research and addresses key current limitations in both theory and practice: sustainability requires social justice; connecting local and global scale shifts; democratizing governance; and acting collectively. We conclude with some implications for our own scholarship in organization studies if we are to meet the twin challenges of the need for new theorizing in combination with devising practically relevant support for change.

AB - To confront the climate crisis requires fundamental system change in order to break the convention of relentless economic exploitation of nature. In this Special Issue we extend understanding of the opportunities for an organizing perspective on sustainability in order that organization studies might contribute more effectively to the challenges of organizing sustainably. This organizing perspective is particularly sensitive to (1) a variety of forms and practices of sustainable organizing in different societal spheres and on different levels, (2) the social institutions, logics and value systems in which these forms and practices are embedded, (3) the power and politics of promoting (or blocking) sustainable organization, and (4) the ways in which work, voice, participation, and inclusion are organized and contribute to developing societal capabilities. These features formed the basis of our original call for papers and we review selected literature on sustainability, including the contribution of organization studies and the articles in this Special Issue, through this organizing perspective. In so doing we identify four key themes of a future research agenda that builds from the foundations of existing research and addresses key current limitations in both theory and practice: sustainability requires social justice; connecting local and global scale shifts; democratizing governance; and acting collectively. We conclude with some implications for our own scholarship in organization studies if we are to meet the twin challenges of the need for new theorizing in combination with devising practically relevant support for change.

KW - Management studies

KW - Entrepreneurship

KW - alternative organization

KW - climate crisis

KW - rand challenges

KW - Just transition

KW - organizing sustainably

KW - sustainability management

KW - systems thinking

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182461272&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/01708406231217143

DO - 10.1177/01708406231217143

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 45

SP - 7

EP - 29

JO - Organization Studies

JF - Organization Studies

SN - 0170-8406

IS - 1

ER -