Coviability as a Scientific Paradigm for an Ecological Transition, from an Overview to a Definition

From organizations as systems of ocean destruction to organizations as systems of ocean thriving

“…This work contributes to recent developments in ecological thinking (Barrière et al, 2019;Bonnet et al, 2021;Charbonnier, 2020;Servigne & Stevens, 2015) by surfacing the theoretical and analytical insights that MOS can provide to such endeavors. These perspectives tend to neglect 'organizations' as a unit of analysis and as a lever of action for sustainable human-ocean coviability.…”

“…While a shift of paradigm in corporate environmentalism can be traced (Sandhu, 2010), the dominant design in businesses remains that of extractivism, exploitation, and destruction. In the dominant anthropocentric view of organizations, the human is not an integrative part of the natural environment, and the nonhuman is simply capitalized and commodified (Barrière et al, 2019). Existing narratives put the emphasis on demographics as causes of climate change, and ignoring the roles of organizations, technology and innovation, consumption, marginalization and social orders in destroying the living (Finkbeiner et al, 2017).…”

“…‘Blue growth’ and other national or transnational ‘blue economy’ strategies are now starting to emerge as key pillars of economic development (Eikeset et al, 2018). These schemes could counterproductively put further pressure on marine ecosystems if they are not grounded in socio‐ecological ‘coviability’, that is to say, avoiding global collapse by ensuring a harmonious, interdependent, sustainable evolution of both humans and nonhumans (Barrière et al, 2019).…”

“…Such a perspective underlines that scientific assessments on crises in the natural and social environment are much more serious when taken together than when taken separately. The coviability approach seeks to reintegrate humans into the biosphere and thus also invites transdisciplinary thinking (Barrière et al, 2019). Lastly, ecological philosophy offers fruitful concepts to understand the detrimental effects of organizations on nature and the living.…”

“…With that vision, and in line with critical approaches of organizations, this paper investigates how to operate a shift from organizations as systems of destruction of the ocean, to organizations as systems of ocean conservation and thriving. To do so, I take inspiration from ecological thinking, including approaches like collapsology (Servigne & Stevens, 2015), coviability (Barrière et al, 2019), and ecological philosophy (Bonnet et al, 2021; Charbonnier, 2020). I use collapsologsy as a transdisciplinary approach that seeks to combine findings from different disciplines in earth, life, and social sciences (Servigne & Stevens, 2020).…”