Posts

Posted on

Digitalisation and Sustainability

tl;dr: Those who want to talk about digitalisation should also talk about the circular economy and sufficiency

Is the digital economy an enabler for a sustainable society? What role do commons, both digital as well as physical, play when it comes to inclusion, equity and mitigating climate change? How can different actors in society frame digital technologies from the normative perspective of Sustainability? These and other questions have been discussed at a recent ideas conference of the TU Berlin on digitalisation and sustainability – “digitalisation” being a very German-English description for the increased use of digital technologies throughout society and their economic, social, political and ecological implications.… Read more

Posted on

Sustainability: From Science to Politics to Ethics: Laudation for Jeffrey D. Sachs

tl;dr: Doing sustainability science requires transgressing science, politics and ethcis – and Jeffrey D. Sachs is a role model how to achieve that with integrity and professional excellence

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbank, 9 November 2017

Dear honoured guests, dear ladies and gentlemen,
Dear Wilfried Stadler and the entire GLOBART team,
Dear Sonia and Jeffrey Sachs:

More than 6 years ago, in the springtime of 2011, the 17th International Sustainable Development Research Conference was held at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York.… Read more

Posted on

Data, Karl Marx and the End of Money

tl;dr: Data will succeed money as the lifeblood of the economy thus making money irrelevant.

What is going to be the lubricant of the Next Economy? The go-to answer most likely is “data”.  My interest here is not so much on the more technical aspects of data gathering, mining, artificial intelligence and what other buzzwords might be up in the air. I am more curious about larger scale transformations in the fabric of the economy, especially when it comes to the role of data and money. … Read more

Posted on

Towards the Next Economy

tl;dr: The Next Economy is signified by Digitalization as a social phenomenon, Postgrowth as economic context, and Sustainability as normative reference frame.

Recently I was provided the opportunity to speak about my research at 12min.me in the co-working/social start-ups incubator Wizeman.Space in Stuttgart. The format is intended to give you 12 minutes of concentrated presentation followed by 12 minutes of discussion (YouTube vid of my talk is available, but only in German). Focusing the past years of research so that they could fit into 12 minutes was a challenge, but it proved to be very productive and inspiring.… Read more

Posted on

Notes from AOM 2017

tl;dr: Putting politics in management and organization research while managing cultural differences in transatlantic scholarship.

Attending a large international management conference with more than 10,000 participants from all over the planet is a great opportunity for some second-order observations: observe how others observe. This exercise in the sociology of international, cross-cultural scholarship reveals some interesting insights. One of these insights is the lack of politics in management research, the blindness to the political economy – in Paul Adler’s words – in which managerial activities take place and organizations thrive, survive, struggle and die.… Read more