Learning from the Anthropocene: Adaptive Epistemology and Complexity in Strategic Managerial Thinking
1
Institute of Energy & Sustainable Development, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
2
Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management, Open University of the Netherlands, 6401 DL Heerlen, The Netherlands
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(11), 4427; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114427
Received: 10 April 2020 / Revised: 27 May 2020 / Accepted: 28 May 2020 / Published: 29 May 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Corporate Sustainability and Sustainable Management in Changing Environments)
Turbulence experienced in the business and social realms resonates with turbulence unfolding throughout the biosphere, as a process of accelerating change at the stratigraphic scale termed the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene is understood as a multi-dimensional limit point, one dimension of which concerns the limits to the lineal epistemology prevalent since the Age of the Enlightenment. This paper argues that future conditions necessitate the updating of a lineal epistemology through a transition towards resilience thinking that is both adaptive and ecosystemic. A management paradigm informed by the recognition of multiple equilibria states distinguished by thresholds, and incorporating adaptive and resilience thinking is considered. This paradigm is thought to enhance flexibility and the capacity to absorb influences without crossing thresholds into alternate stable, but less desirable, states. One consequence is that evaluations of success may change, and these changes are considered and explored as likely on-going challenges businesses must grapple with into the future.
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Keywords:
epistemology; resilience thinking; adaptive management; anthropocene
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MDPI and ACS Style
Mitchell, A.S.; Lemon, M.; Lambrechts, W. Learning from the Anthropocene: Adaptive Epistemology and Complexity in Strategic Managerial Thinking. Sustainability 2020, 12, 4427. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114427
AMA Style
Mitchell AS, Lemon M, Lambrechts W. Learning from the Anthropocene: Adaptive Epistemology and Complexity in Strategic Managerial Thinking. Sustainability. 2020; 12(11):4427. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114427
Chicago/Turabian StyleMitchell, Andrew S., Mark Lemon, and Wim Lambrechts. 2020. "Learning from the Anthropocene: Adaptive Epistemology and Complexity in Strategic Managerial Thinking" Sustainability 12, no. 11: 4427. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114427
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