Revisiting Autopoiesis: A Research Note and Another Narrative on Accounting and Sustainability

Purpose: This relatively short paper offers a more developed interpretation of the continuing and worrying trend in which “sustainability” is either ignored or implicitly assumed to be part of – and compatible with – notions such as eco-efficiency, growth, profit and the business case. Design/methodology/approach: The essay employs the theory of autopoiesis as a metaphoric lens through which to re-examine accounting, business and educational practice with respect to sustainability Findings: The theory of autopoiesis works well as a lens in this regard and the analysis succeeds in highlighting that the accounting, business and educational systems may well be protecting their “cores” but are doing so by ignoring crucial and life-threatening information. In autopoietic terms, the sub-systems are behaving psychopathically.