Business sustainability and sustainable development are of great importance in modern-day socio-economic study. Despite this, the impact of recent contributions from systems and complexity sciences in addressing these issues has not yet filtered down into effective practice. This book argues that there is a need for urgency in the application of analytical tools which embody the principles of complexity management in sustainability research, in particular in the context of the global climate change. The approach presented is based on the concept of clusters of whole systems coming together through collaboration, in order to create larger wholes capable of dealing with the issues facing our socio-economic environmental systems.
In this updated second edition, the authors further clarify the viability and sustainability (V&S) approach, and the criteria and framework needed for sustainable governance. It includes a more detailed perspective on the implications of the V&S approach to businesses and networks towards changes in structure, strategy and processes, inspired by specific case studies. Key additions include a criteria for designing more viable and sustainable self-governed organizations, the methodologies and tools to design and implement self-transformations towards sustainability, and how these tools support sustainability management individually and globally, for businesses and society.
Sample Chapter(s)
Foreword (81 KB)
1: Introducing Complexity and Sustainability (1,364 KB)
Contents:
- Introducing Complexity and Sustainability
- Viability through Complexity Management: Revisiting the Viable Systems Model
- Societies as Viable Systems: Self-Governance and Sustainability
- Toward More Sustainable Businesses
- Viable and Sustainable Networks
- Rethinking Sustainable Development
- Envisioning Solutions for the Required Societal Transition
- Conclusions
Readership: Graduate and undergraduate students studying ecology management and corporate social responsibilty, professionals, general public and researchers interested in complexity and sustainability.
Angela Espinosa was born in Bogota, Colombia. She graduated as a computer and systems engineer in 1981 and received a PhD in Organisational Cybernetics from Aston Business School, UK in 1995. She worked originally as an Information Systems Manager, in private and public enterprises, and then as the Director of the Secretariat of Information and Systems of the Colombian President's Office (1990–1992). From 1993 to 2002, she taught systems and cybernetics in Los Andes University and provided consultancy for both private and public organisations. Since 2002 she has been researching and teaching at Hull University Business School, at the Centre of Systems Studies, where she is a Reader. Since 2009 she has been also an invited professor at Los Andes Business School for six months each year. She has written and co-edited several books, supervised dozens of MSc and PhD dissertations, and published many journal papers and books on the application of cybernetics and systems thinking. In the last decade, she has focused her research on complexity and sustainability, specifically on self-organisation in SMEs, communities and networks. Her academic work has been recognised since 1998 where she was appointed as the Representative for Colombia in the World Organisation of Systems and Cybernetics; in 2002 the IFSR gave her the Ashby Lecture; Kybernetes gave her the Norbert Wiener Award in 2007; and Emeraldi Literati has gave her two awards for outstanding paper and most commented paper (2007, 2012).
Jon Walker received a PhD in cybernetics in Aston University in the 1980s. He has over thirty years' experience working in the co-operative business sector. He has established and co-managed a range of businesses including retail outlets, a small-scale manufacturing plant, a warehouse and a chain of supermarkets dealing mainly with wholefood, organic and fairly-traded products. Concurrently, Jon has lectured, published, consulted and provided training courses in both private and public sectors, internationally on organisational structures. In particular Jon has pioneered the use of innovative organisational theory — the Viable Systems Model, in both large cooperatives and an eco-community. The resulting organisational changes have resulted in working practices which are both efficient whilst at the same time being based on principles of participation and individual creativity and autonomy. Jon is based in Yorkshire where he continues to have direct involvement with the co-operative food sector there, in particular in developing food networks that serve local communities. Nationally, he works with the Transition Network, the Permaculture Association and the Cooperative Group.
