 Eco-responsibility and the Utopia of Bio-Organization: A Framework for Organizational Self-AssessmentLa Eco-Responsabilidad y la utopía de la bio-organización: una grilla para la autoevaluación organizacionalMiguel Stuardo-Concha ()
Working Papers from HAL Abstract: This conference proposes a critical reflection on contemporary forms of human organization through the concepts of "eco-responsibility" and the utopia of the "bio-organization." The author argues that the current ecological crisis is fundamentally a political and organizational crisis of responsibility. Dominant forms of human collaboration, structured around the logic of accumulation and infinite growth, generate destructive effects on human societies, ecosystems, and the very conditions that sustain life. Drawing on a transdisciplinary perspective that mobilizes political philosophy, ecological economics, and organizational theories, the conference critically examines the dominant frameworks of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility (CSR). These frameworks are considered insufficient because they remain largely compatible with the paradigm of unlimited growth and often prioritize reputation management and mitigation strategies over profound organizational transformation. The author relies on scientific research concerning planetary boundaries and global environmental transformations to demonstrate that human organizations directly contribute to the transgression of critical ecological thresholds. According to the Stockholm Resilience Centre, seven of the nine planetary boundaries had already been exceeded by 2025, indicating that humanity has moved beyond the Earth's safe operating space. In response to this situation, eco-responsibility is presented as an ethical, scientific, and political framework aimed at rethinking human organizations from a bio-cultural paradigm in which human beings are understood as fundamentally interconnected with ecosystems. Inspired in particular by Young's work on structural injustice, this approach conceives responsibility as collective and agentic, focusing not on legal guilt but on the capacity of organizations to recognize their role in reproducing socio-ecological problems and to actively participate in their transformation. The conference also introduces the notion of "bio-organization," understood as a form of human collaboration integrated into the dynamics of living systems and oriented toward the preservation of life rather than the accumulation of capital. This perspective draws inspiration from proposals emerging from the social and solidarity economy, circular economy approaches, and regenerative organizational models. Finally, the author presents an organizational self-assessment grid based on four levels of eco-responsibility, ranging from discourse alone to the restoration of ecosystem services. This framework enables the analysis of both intra- and extra-organizational effects in terms of social justice and environmental impacts, while also incorporating socio-historical, transnational, and intergenerational perspectives. The tool is conceived as a reflexive and evolving framework designed to support organizations in processes of deconstruction and transformation toward more eco-responsible forms of human collaboration. Keywords: bio-organization; eco-responsibility; eco-responsabilidad; bio-organización; Éco-Responsabilité; bio-organisation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-05634421 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in Working Papers from HAL |
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