Social learning for sustainability: supporting sustainable business in Brazil regarding multiple social actors, relationships and interests

Abstract

Finding solutions for complex environmental, economic and social issues in organisations relies on coordinated actions among several social actors that are involved in the sustainable development web and demands that they learn new business methods. In this scenario, which involves multiple social actors, relationships, contexts and interests, social learning has emerged as a hybrid approach to resolving complex environmental and social problems. Such an approach marks a different situation for organisations whose focus is not only on supporting such problem resolution but also on transforming such crises into opportunities to generate sustainable products and services. Thus, this study discusses how one of the largest companies in Latin America’s chemical segment formed a network with 23 social actors and is socially learning to deal with the dialectic between return on investments for its shareholders and benefits for its stakeholders. Research was conducted based on Boje’s narrative analysis. The data was built through interviews, informal conversations, textual and audio-visual documents and non-participant observation. This paper discusses the concept and describes the social learning process for sustainability (in this case, for sustainable agriculture) from the viewpoint of a for-profit organisation. In this manner, this study contributes to strengthening the connection between social learning and sustainability.

Keywords:

• social learning
• sustainability
• actor network
• biodiversity
• sustainable business

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the Pro-Administration Program (Pro-Adm) funded by the Special Project Coordination from CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel) under grant number 09/2008.

Notes

1. In this paper, the company name was changed.