Sustainability: An Appalachian Ecology of Commerce
Document Type
Panel Presentation
Keywords
Sustainability, Organization, Ecology
Biography
Madison Shuler is a senior enrolled in the Advanced Master's Program in the Department of Sociology at Marshall University. She will be attending West Virginia University's College of Law in the Fall.
This research was motivated by the groundbreaking work from Ray Anderson, the founder of Interface, Inc. and Paul Hawken, the author of "Ecology of Commerce."
Major
Sociology
Advisor for this project
Marty Laubach, Frederick Roth, Kristi Fondren
Abstract
As the global economy begins to adapt to the lingering threat of climate change, local businesses in West Virginia are doing the same. “Sustainability: An Appalachian Ecology of Commerce” dives into the social impact of these changes on organizational workplace structures. This study asks questions about how and why workplace management, work-force and consumer consciousness is changing through both survey data and recorded interviews. This data cross-references theories of work and social organization from sociologists Max Weber and Karl Marx, including Weber’s Bureaucratic Organizational Theory and Marx’s Surplus Value Theory. This study aims to uncover new attitudes and expand conversations about Sustainability amongst the reality of changing production methods.
Sustainability: An Appalachian Ecology of Commerce
As the global economy begins to adapt to the lingering threat of climate change, local businesses in West Virginia are doing the same. “Sustainability: An Appalachian Ecology of Commerce” dives into the social impact of these changes on organizational workplace structures. This study asks questions about how and why workplace management, work-force and consumer consciousness is changing through both survey data and recorded interviews. This data cross-references theories of work and social organization from sociologists Max Weber and Karl Marx, including Weber’s Bureaucratic Organizational Theory and Marx’s Surplus Value Theory. This study aims to uncover new attitudes and expand conversations about Sustainability amongst the reality of changing production methods.
