Fostering Engagement with Human Sustainability: The Cultivation of Care Among Business Students

Abstract

Ecological systems comprise interdependent human and other living beings, along with their life-giving natural environments. The sustainability of such systems has become a critical global concern, both generally and in relation to business practice. This chapter considers the cultivation of care among business students as one important way of fostering engagement with such concern, with particular attention given to a specific and under-attended area in business research and practice: that of human sustainability. In order to overcome potential limitations of diverse and often disparate streams of research on care, this chapter considers Mayseless’ (2016) integrative framework for understanding caring motivation, and builds upon the four points of intervention for cultivating care that were articulated within that framework. Extant pedagogical research within business and management is used to elaborate additional insights and methods for developing caring skills, caring values, caring teaching and learning communities, and a more extensive vision of care that includes those who might be unknown, different from or distant to us. The framework, insights, methods, and examples discussed in this chapter provide a foundation that can help guide future care-related, ecologically focused pedagogical research and practice.

Citation

Simola, S. (2020), "Fostering Engagement with Human Sustainability: The Cultivation of Care Among Business Students", Sengupta, E., Blessinger, P. and Mahoney, C. (Ed.) Civil Society and Social Responsibility in Higher Education: International Perspectives on Curriculum and Teaching Development (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 21), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 195-208. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120200000021014