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Fields of green: Corporate sustainability and the production of economistic environmental governance

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  • Peter R Wilshusen
  • Kenneth Iain MacDonald

Abstract

This article critically examines the production of economistic fields of environmental governance in the context of global summits like Rio + 20. It focuses on the constitutive work performed by diverse actors in extending corporate sustainability logics, social technologies, and organizational forms initially enacted at the 2012 Corporate Sustainability Forum (CSF). Fields are defined as dynamic, relational arenas featuring particular logics, dynamic actor positions, and organizational forms. Corporate sustainability exemplifies how the language and practices of economics have reshaped approaches to environmental protection and sustainable development. Although numerous studies have looked at the implementation of market-oriented approaches, less attention has been focused on the constitutive processes that animate and expand economistic fields of governance over time. Our analysis emphasizes diffuse processes of economization as central to the reproduction and extension of fields. The article addresses three key issues: (1) how global corporate sustainability networks help to constitute economistic fields of governance, (2) the extent to which major events contribute to field configuration, and (3) the processes through which field elements—logics, social technologies, and organizational forms—transpose onto related fields of governance. Field configuration produces economistic environmental governance by solidifying business logics, enabling new actor-networks, launching new global-scale initiatives, and enhancing the role of UN agencies in promoting corporate sustainability. We illustrate field configuration with two examples: the Natural Capital Declaration and the Green Industry Platform. Our analysis highlights the diffuse power of field dynamics in which discursive and social entanglement and transposition reproduce and extend corporate sustainability beyond current institutional boundaries.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter R Wilshusen & Kenneth Iain MacDonald, 2017. "Fields of green: Corporate sustainability and the production of economistic environmental governance," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(8), pages 1824-1845, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:49:y:2017:i:8:p:1824-1845
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X17705657
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dan Brockington, 2012. "A Radically Conservative Vision? The Challenge of UNEP's Towards a Green Economy," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(1), pages 409-422, January.
    2. N. Anand & Brittany C. Jones, 2008. "Tournament Rituals, Category Dynamics, and Field Configuration: The Case of the Booker Prize," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 1036-1060, September.
    3. Lisa M. Campbell & Catherine Corson & Noella J. Gray & Kenneth I. MacDonald & Peter Brosius, 2014. "Introduction: Studying Global Environmental Meetings to Understand Global Environmental Governance: Collaborative Event Ethnography at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biologic," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 14(3), pages 1-20, August.
    4. George Holmes, 2011. "Conservation's Friends in High Places: Neoliberalism, Networks, and the Transnational Conservation Elite," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 11(4), pages 1-21, November.
    5. Lisa M. Campbell & Shannon Hagerman & Noella J. Gray, 2014. "Producing Targets for Conservation: Science and Politics at the Tenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 14(3), pages 41-63, August.
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    1. Wilshusen, Peter R., 2019. "Environmental governance in motion: Practices of assemblage and the political performativity of economistic conservation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Alessandro Lai & Silvia Panfilo & Riccardo Stacchezzini, 2019. "The governmentality of corporate (un)sustainability: the case of the ILVA steel plant in Taranto (Italy)," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 23(1), pages 67-109, March.

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