Feeling and Living Nature: A Relational Ontology
Materiality, Society and the More-than-Human 2025 - A BSA New Materialisms Study Group International Zoom Seminar Series
3 November 2025 (14:00-15:00 BST)
Online
Speakers
- Ann L Cunliffe and Ana Carolina Aguiar (Fundação Getúlio Vargas-EAESP, Brazil) - Feeling and Living Nature: A Relational Ontology
Abstract
After spending time in the Amazon rainforest, sustainability professionals understood their relationship with nature in fundamentally different ways. Experiencing the unpredictability of the forest, river, weather and wildlife, initially through their emotions/senses/bodies, they began to realise how the Amazon’s suffering was also human suffering. This generated a living sense of vulnerability and intertwined agency.
The research draws on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology to explore how a relational ontology dissolves human-nature dichotomies and foregrounds our responsibilities as partners of nature rather than its managers. The sustainability professionals in the study found that translating this responsibility into organizational contexts was challenging and required them to find new ways of working.
Biographical Notes
- Ann L Cunliffe is Professor of Organization Studies at FGV-EAESP, Brazil and visiting professor at the University of Bath School of Management. Her current research interests include embodied knowing, living experiences of work, non-mainstream qualitative research, and reflexivity. She is co-editor of the Sage Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods (2018), and founder of the biennial Qualitative Research in Management and Organization Conference in New Mexico, USA.
- Ana Carolina Aguiar is a researcher and lecturer of Organization Studies and Sustainability at FGV-EAESP, Brazil. Her research interests include sustainability, responsible management education and dialogical organizational development. Her research has been published in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and in The SAGE Handbook of Responsible Management Learning and Education. Prior to joining the academic world, Ana worked for more than 10 years as a senior management professional in Brazil.
The seminar workshop will be delivered via Zoom.
Registration
This event is free to attend, but registration is required.