Recomposing Management Education Under Climate Crisis: Towards a Composting Heuristic for Epistemic Change
Ling Li, Kate Seymour, Rosalyn Marron, Helena Kettleborough, Catherine Brentnall, Olivia Tomlinson, Sarah Walker, Nor Yusup, John LeverAbstract
Management learning and education (MLE) is increasingly critiqued for its reliance on anthropocentric and profit‐maximization paradigms, which fail to adequately address the escalating ecological and climate crises. In this article, we call for an epistemic shift in MLE by introducing the metaphor of composting as a lens for collective reflexive critique. We propose a composting heuristic inspired by the social practices of managing organic matter—landfill, industrial composting and community composting—to help MLE educators critically examine the epistemic foundations, limitations and possibilities that shape their teaching and learning practices. This metaphorical framework highlights an epistemic transition towards a multispecies and regenerative pedagogical paradigm, grounded in relational ontology, care and embodied practice. We argue that engaging with the metaphor of composting—and reflecting critically on one's positioning within the landfill‐industrial‐community composting heuristic—can catalyse a collective endeavour to drive epistemic change in MLE in response to the urgent demands of climate and ecological breakdown.