Language is a reef of dead metaphors – Guy Deutscher We are in the midst of an unfolding crisis that humanity is struggling to understand. To make sense of the unknown, humans tend to rely on metaphors, analogies, or other rhetorical figures. What do metaphors do? They allow for giving meaning to a (rather unknown) […]
Insights
The Political Economy of the Olympics – Misconceptions About Sustainability
In the midst of the global coronavirus crisis, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Japanese government finally decided last month to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Olympics until next year. The general public across the world may have different views on the Olympics – positive and negative, or simply indifference. But with regard to the Tokyo […]
Supply Chain Responsibilities in a Global Pandemic
What is the responsibility of Western retailers to the workers who make their garments as the coronavirus forces factories to shut down? Shopping malls are closed, gatherings are banned, thousands of employees have been furloughed, and movement outside of one’s home is discouraged if not outright illegal. This has meant bad news for apparel brands […]
Sustainable Development, Interrupted?
The coronavirus and responses to the pandemic are right now defining human existence inside and outside of organizations. All societal attention and communication are centred on the virus, its day-to-day consequences and possible future repercussions for the people, the economy – and the planet. Indeed, we are living through a gargantuan social experiment, and these […]
Normalizing Sustainability
We often hear the argument that, given the urgency of climate change and sustainability concerns, significant changes to individual behaviours and lifestyles are required. This has led to a wide array of public education and climate literacy campaigns aimed at changing such behaviours. In this blog, I will argue that some fairly strong research findings […]
Sustainable Consumer Behavior: Go Big or Go Home?
In recent years, news on issues such as climate change, environmental degradation and plastic pollution was almost inescapable. At least in Europe, newspapers reported on environmental topics regularly, political discussions often revolved around greenhouse gas emissions or environmental policy, and sustainability content creators gained large numbers of followers on social media with tips on package-free […]
Just Announced: And the World’s Worst Company is …. Really?
Why naming a hardly known German company as the world’s most controversial company inadvertently makes a lot of sense.
Helpful Hypocrisy? The ‘Ironic Turn’ in Corporate Talk About Sustainable Development
Do you feel uneasy to think that companies use a humorous tone in their communications about grave challenges such as climate change, pollution and inequality? We suggest the notion of helpful hypocrisy to coin this new ironic turn in recent corporate communications.
Fake news and the future of the truth
At least since the last U.S. elections in 2016, the issue of “fake news” is frequently debated in the public and the news. The strategic and targeted distribution of misinformation to undermine political opponents peaked in the conspiracy theory termed “Pizzagate”. Originated from leaked emails, the story suggested that the former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton along with […]
When is a Banking Scandal a Corporate Social Responsibility Scandal?
I arrived in Australia to discuss and research corporate social responsibility (CSR) with colleagues at RMIT University and the University of Melbourne to see the papers covered in … a banking scandal. The Westpac Bank product ‘Litepay’, designed to enable customers to transfer small amounts of money overseas, is alleged to have enabled money-laundering on […]