Accountability, sustainability and the art of interpretation

Glen Lehman

Chapter 8 in Handbook of Critical Environmental Accountability and Sustainability, 2026, pp 119-133 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Research concerning accountability, sustainability and the greening of democracy has been subject to critical insight and deliberation. It has been argued that green democracy is being asked to deliver more than it can achieve. One way to create an accountable, sustainable and green democracy is to develop the art of interpretation, as explored by Hubert Dreyfus (2004), Michael Sandel (2005) and Charles Taylor (1992, 1993, 2007). They suggest that democratic institutions develop those commonalities that unite people and respect the natural environment. Accordingly, this chapter utilises Charles Taylor's work on the art of interpretation to explore environmental values. This chapter includes these thinkers to extend accountability through an interpretivist (post-liberal) approach, addressing the question of whether free-market modernism and sustainability are unlikely to achieve their objectives. They have not explored the need to adjust the moral and physical structures in light of free-market modernism. We may come to appreciate the otherness of nature through moral sensibility. This is to be achieved through face-to-face community relationships in a civil and democratic structure that is attentive to the otherness of nature.

Keywords: Secular Accounting; Secularity; Environment; Social Imaginaries; Modern Accounting; Environmental Secularity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781802201765
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