ART AND AESTHETICS IN SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION INSIGHTS INTO BEAUTIFYING MANAGEMENT EDUCATION WITH FRANÇOIS JULLIEN

Abstract

On the one hand, beauty is a concept well propounded in Western and Eastern art and aesthetics but the Chinese perspective is often ignored, especially in education. On the other hand, aesthetic practices are increasingly used in management education. The purpose of this theoretical article is to question the conceptual basis of art and aesthetics used in management education in order to foster sustainability education. Our specific approach is to open a dialogue with the Chinese conception of aesthetics, particularly focusing on its links to life and flourishing. In looking at different conceptions of beauty in Western and Chinese thoughts, we go over the dominant Western perspective. We provide a non-ethnocentric conception of beauty and offer relevant insights into beautifying management education. Three stages mark this conceptual article on the challenges of beauty in management in the context of sustainability. First, we present and analyze the living ARTEM case, a 20-year experience in higher education in France. Second, we question the Western concept of “beautiful” vis-à-vis the Chinese relational view of beauty as interpreted by philosopher and sinologist Francois Jullien. Finally, we analyze the potential of beauty to sustainably “enliven” management education. We suggest that beauty, in line with the concept of connivance as suggested by Jullien, can serve as an enlivenement process to beautify management and business education. Connivance works as a sensory and relational knowledge, especially adapted to better understand and mobilize aesthetics practices in sustainability education.