Tilburg University How are we to go on together? Dialogues on the social construction of sustainability Altomare Nattrass, M.E. Publication date: 2010 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Altomare Nattrass, M. E. (2010). How are we to go on together? Dialogues on the social construction of sustainability. [s.n.]. 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DIALOGUES ON THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF SUSTAINABILITY Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Tilburg op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de Ruth First zaal van de Universiteit op dinsdag 8 juni 2010 om 14.15 uur door Mary Elizabeth Altomare Nattrass, geboren op 8 maart 1950 te Concord, New Hampshire, USA. Promotores: Prof. dr. Kenneth J. Gergen Prof. dr. John B. Rijsman i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With deep appreciation to Ken Gergen for his enthusiasm, encouragement, and support throughout this dissertation process, and for the powerful intellectual foundation his life’s work provides as a foundation upon which to build. The colleagues and practitioners who shared their stories and who continue to work with persistence and patience to make the new story a reality. My husband Brian for his constant and gentle support, intellectual engagement, countless conversations and explorations into making sense, and glorious sense of humor that always shows up at just the right times. ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to Brian, my inspiration, partner, co-conspirator, and the companion of my heart; Kristen and Staci, my earliest motivation for this journey; Sarah, Kylee, and Sydney whose future is at stake; All the pioneering practitioners it has been my privilege to know and serve; and All the sustainability practitioners, who follow in their footsteps. iii SUMMARY (Samenvatting) This qualitative study uses dialogue and story to explore how the concept of sustainability is moving from the margins to the mainstream of social discourse, becoming a framework for coordinating action, and serving as the foundation for an emerging field of practice throughout society globally. I suggest that the terms and forms being socially negotiated as sustainability can be viewed as a movement from one intelligibility, or story, to another. Humanity’s old story states that humanity is small and powerless compared to the wild, vast, and powerful forces of nature. While human actions may be able to inflict local or regional harm to natural systems, they lack the capacity to irreparably destroy major ecosystems, or significantly alter major global systems, such as the climate system (the threat of nuclear annihilation aside). The old story assumes that the Earth will continue to provide all of the resources that humanity requires while, at the same time, absorbing all of the waste that humanity produces—despite the seemingly insatiable demands of a rapidly growing and increasingly urban, industrialized, and consumerist global population. In the new story, humanity has itself become a global force of nature, capable of rendering irreparable harm to the Earth’s complex natural systems, including climate. The new story tells us we can no longer take for granted that the Earth will continue to sustain our species indefinitely into the future unless we actively exercise wisdom and develop more sustainable practices. Humanity must learn how to live in conscious balance with the rest of Earth’s natural systems. This requires intentionally acting in a manner consistent with the understanding that human activities can potentially harm natural systems beyond recovery—resulting in the undermining of global civilization, even jeopardizing the continued survival of our species along with countless others. iv After laying out my purpose and approach for this study in Chapter 1, I engage in a dialogue with ideas. I view this exploration as a dialogue because it represents an on-going conversation—one that I have been engaged in for the better part of my adult life. This exchange finds many expressions, which include multiple and diverse media, such as texts, movies, television, both popular and academic media, as well as the conversations I have had with sustainability pioneers and practitioners, including my husband and partner, Brian, and those that I have carried out internally with myself as I have reflected on what I have read, seen, heard and experienced. Because I am the common denominator weaving together the threads of this dialogue, this exploration is at once both philosophical and autobiographical. In Chapter 2, I explore the diverse ways that humanity has ascribed meaning to nature—from nature as the pervasive, powerful yet distinct “other” or “not-human” world, to nature as the storehouse of resources and commodities existing solely for use and exploitation by us as the dominant species. I engage in this exploration because fundamentally sustainability is about relationships, about the connections we perceive, as well as the interconnections that exist whether we perceive them or not. The meaning, or meanings, we ascribe to nature is an expression of the relationships we believe to be true. What we believe to be true is ultimately the foundation for our actions and practices. In Chapter 3, I examine how this relatively new idea, sustainability, grows out of an emerging understanding that human systems are in danger of becoming precariously out of balance with the natural systems that enable and support our life. In this dialogue, I draw upon diverse disciplines and perspectives including astronomy, biology, history, literature, philosophy, popular culture, psychology, and sociology, as well as my own reflections, questions, and conclusions. In seeking to understand what sustainability v means, I first explore what un-sustainability means, as so much of the sustainability discourse is more accurately about signs that humanity’s current course is not sustainable, meaning that we may be on a collision course with our own nature-based life support systems. I posit that this un-sustainability story is a necessary stage in the movement from the dominant intelligibility that operates as if humanity and nature are separate and separable, to a new intelligibility in which the interdependence and interrelationship of humanity with the rest of nature is assumed. As the ramifications of the un-sustainability story become more apparent within global society, increasing numbers of individuals and organizations are beginning to engage in sense-making conversations about what those implications mean to them. As they seek to make sense of this new story and act in accord with this new understanding, a new field of practice is emerging that requires distinct, new and often unfamiliar, skill sets and perspectives. Ultimately the hope is that this emerging field of practice is a transitional one, as the transformation into the new intelligibility means that sustainability practice becomes the new common sense or business-as-usual, rather than continuing as a set of new and distinct practices. During this transitional phase, sustainability practitioners represent the exception from business-as- usual; in the new intelligibility, they become the rule, as all practitioners will need to integrate sustainability perspectives into their work. I define a sustainability practitioner in two specific ways, one predominantly internal to an organization, the other external, as follows: 1. Anyone who has specific formalized responsibility within an enterprise for any aspect of its sustainability education, strategies, practices and/or outcomes; and vi 2. Anyone who consults to or advises an organization’s leaders and an organization’s sustainability practitioners on sustainability education, strategies, practices and outcomes. Based on my experience in the field, I suggest that three of the key tasks of an internal or external sustainability practitioner are to: 1. Help sustainability make sense within the organization’s context; 2. Help the organization identify how to act in alignment with the sense that sustainability makes; and 3. Help the organization to integrate sustainability into its ongoing story, and by doing so, facilitate the evolution of both the sustainability story and the organization’s own story. In Chapters 4 through 7, I shift my dialogue with ideas to a dialogue with practitioners about the practice of sustainability. This conversation draws upon my experience with several complex and prominent organizations, each with a global