Sustainability objects as performative definitions of sustainability

The case of food-waste-based biogas and biofertilizers

Bibliographic Data

ID2391089
AuthorsHervé Corvellec (0000-0001-7491-8816, Lund University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume21
Issue3
Pages383-401
Publication date2016-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183516632281
OpenAlexW1752046140
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited67

This article introduces the notion of sustainability objects as a label for objects that come with a claim of promoting a more sustainable mode of living. The purpose is to show that organizations that develop such objects construct a performative definition of sustainability. A case study of the development of a facility for the pre-treatment of food-waste-based biogas and biofertilizers serves as an empirical example of the development of sustainability objects. The analysis demonstrates that this development and concomitant defining of sustainability have involved the contextualizing of biogas and biofertilizers, entangling them in nets of relationships and endowing them with an agency of their own. With sustainability objects embodying definitions of sustainability, their success or failure as objects derive from the success or failure of the performative definitions that they embody, and vice versa. Asking why sustainability objects gain or lose ground is therefore suggested as a way of understanding the character and evolution of sustainability transition

Agency (philosophy · Business · Economics · Environmental economics · Environmental resource management · Epistemology · Performative utterance · Social science · Social sustainability · Sociology · Sustainability · Sustainability organizations · Sustainability science · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Management and Organizational Studies · Service and Product Innovation · Ecology

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