SRI External Seminar

Dr Pasi Heikkurinen, University of Leeds.

Technology and sustainability: Philosophy, critique and implications for human organization

Garstang seminar room 2 (8.11), level 8, School of Geography

Abstract: In the contemporary world, technological solutions to the prevailing unsustainability have received a central role. Due to the robust political commitment to technological progress in environmental policy and related path dependencies, modern societies and organisations are increasingly contingent on technological systematizations. The development and adoption of increasingly advanced technological products and processes are taken for granted, and policies persist largely unquestioned. This presentation investigates the philosophical basis of technological optimism, analyses the critique of technology in relation to sustainability, and outlines practical implications for the organization on human activities. Empirical illustrations are taken from growing food in Yorkshire, UK. The presentation is based on a two-year research project ‘Technology for Sustainability in Organisations: Case Studies in Agricultural Production’ (TECHSUS), which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 707652.

Bio: Dr Pasi Heikkurinen is Lecturer in Business and Sustainable Change in Sustainability Research Institute at the University of Leeds and Adjunct Professor of Sustainability and Organization in the Department of Management at the Aalto School of Economics, Finland. His overall research project is a phenomenology of sustainable organization and management, where the main interest is on questions concerning ethics and technique in relation to economy and nature.