Being in the World Locally : Degrowth Business, Critical Realism, and Humanistic Geography

• Published in: Frontiers in Sustainability
• Main Author: Nesterova, Iana
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för geografi 2022
• Subjects: degrowth; critical realism; humanistic geography; Northern Sweden; firm; Business Administration; Företagsekonomi; Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified; Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-194188; https://doi.org/10.3389/frsus.2022.829848

It has been argued that to achieve a genuinely sustainable society, our mode of being inthe world needs to change. Understanding macro visions such as the desirable size ofour economies remains essential, but concrete ways of being in the world which unitesuch aspects of our existence as the self, being with others (humans and non-humans)and being in and with nature deserve a much closer attention. Hence, I propose focusingour attention on being once again. But rather than contemplating being as an abstractphilosophical category, this paper looks at being in the world in this dual sense: we arepart of the cosmos, of the web of existence and at the same time we are in the worldlocally, in concrete places and locations characterized by particular cultural attributes,political-economic systems, climate and landscape. This nature of being applies toindividual humans and human organizations. This paper focuses specifically on businessas one type of organizations. I employ the concept of degrowth business, the philosophyof critical realism and humanistic geography as lenses to enhance and deepen ourunderstanding of what it could mean and look like for a business to be in the world locallyand more sustainably. To understand what it could mean and look like in reality, I offer acase of a firm from Northern Sweden specializing in vertical hydroponic agriculture.