Intrinsic Sustainable Development: Epistemes, Science, Business and Sustainability

Sustainable development sets the agenda for the 21st century. Human technological capability and needs mean that nature is and will be challenged and damaged in many ways. Whilst many social and technological innovations are being made to improve our survival prospects, they are likely to be insufficient to avoid continued social and ecological stress and the prospect of global tension if significant changes do not come about.

The ideas in this book offer a new solution to sustainable development problems. They are concerned not with what we know but how we know, or rather how we order knowledge and create understanding in the human world.

This book shows that some of the fundamental practices that shape modern society, especially in the business world, are the unwitting cause of unsustainable development. By extrapolating the epistemic analysis of Michel Foucault, a major social scientist, this book identifies a new episteme. It outlines a new way of ordering knowledge that better serves sustainable development.

This pioneering book synthesizes the sciences of human and natural worlds and applies the findings to the creation of sustainable business models and equitable lifestyles for all.

Readership: Graduate students in sustainable business, CSR and environmental sciences; social and natural scientists; business professionals and accountants.