Organizing disorganization: The isolation, separation and polarization of climate change demands

Date: Thursday 30th April
Time: 11 – 12pm
Location: Online via zoom

Despite growing public concern over the worsening climate crisis, global carbon emissions continue to increase due to the expansion of fossil fuel use. In this presentation, we use the concept of hegemony to explain the dominance of fossil fuel energy in driving economic activity. Hegemony refers to the construction of what is seen as evident or common sense. This also entails viewing other positions as unrealistic, naïve or even dangerous. By attending to different disorganizing strategies, we demonstrate how organizing efforts are undermined, which partly explains the failure in limiting fossil fuel use and addressing climate change. This contributes to current processual studies of grand challenges by attending to the fragmentation of the social field. More specifically, the development of three disorganization strategies – isolation, separation and polarization – extends current discussion of the individualization of common goods and the demonization of environmental movements. This discussion also contributes to processual studies by showing the organizational dynamics underlying activities that appear to be spontaneous and local. Finally, and more practically, we contribute to the broader discussion on the failure to act on climate change.

Daniel Nyberg is a professor in sustainability at the University of Queensland, an honorary professor at the University of Sydney, and guest professor at Linnaeus University. His research explores responses to climate change in projects on the transition to a low carbon economy, the politics of adaptation, and how corporate political activities influence public policy. He has published widely on these topics, including the recently published book Organising Responses to Climate Change: The Politics of Mitigation, Adaptation and Suffering (with Christopher Wright and Vanessa Bowden) and in journals, such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies and Organization Studies.