Event Details

Dr Marian Iszatt-White will deliver a seminar on her research into notions of stewardship for business, with respect to the ecological crisis.

Drawing on the wisdom of indigenous (Spiller, 2021) understandings of the relationship between humans and nature, this workshop explores notions of ‘stewardship’ (Davis et al, 1997) in different contexts to evaluate its potential to replace the debased currency of leadership across a range of stakeholders. Building on an integrative literature review across six research domains, from arts and humanities to the physical and social sciences, the workshop will explore what is at the core of human understandings of stewardship and how these are currently utilised in sustainability-related activity. It will posit a return to the relational ontologies of indigenous cultures, with their profound connections between humans and nature and the consequent obligation of stewardship - in contrast to Enlightenment beliefs in the domination of nature for our own purposes (Banerjee and Arjaliès 2021) – as fundamental to addressing the current ecological crises and other Sustainable Development Goals.