Phoenix Arises From the Ashes: Polycrisis and New Beginnings in Business Ethics and Stakeholder Management
摘要
This chapter discusses the concept of polycrisis, which oscillates between global disaster and cosmopolitan hope, and offers a critical lens for examining contemporary challenges in business ethics and stakeholder management. This article explores the implications of polycrisis in relation to political, social, and cultural understandings in the context of Eastern and Western Europe, with a focus on the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the latent tensions between the US and China. Drawing inspiration from the myth of the Phoenix, symbolizing regeneration and renewal from the ashes of crisis, the paper critically analyses how organizations can navigate the complexities of crisis while cultivating hope for a transformative future. The article argues that, despite the widespread interrelated crises in military, political, economic, and social spheres, there are emerging voices calling for a cosmopolitan paradigm shift towards ethical governance and sound politics. This paper seeks to highlight the tension between the destruction caused by global crises and the search for a hopeful, cosmopolitan praxis that fosters new forms of collective action. Additionally, it investigates how the overlapping and interconnected crises of our time can serve as a catalyst for transformative change. By presenting an analysis of polycrisis and its multifaceted dimensions—material, social, cultural, and geographical—the paper aims to offer a holistic understanding of crisis that not only examines its destructive forces but also its potential for new beginnings, in line with the philosophical insights of Edgard Morin and others on polycrisis as a key concept in contemporary social change.