The two-volume book “Place Based Approaches to Sustainability” edited by Mara Del Baldo, Maria-Gabriella Baldarelli, and Elisabetta Righini was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2024.
The book explores “space” as an integral aspect of sustainability strategy, advocates a radical rethinking and reforming of our economies, and analyses the connection between ecology and social justice as a framework for the economy. It is argued that without respecting and nurturing “place” we cannot achieve a state of ecological sustainability. Place-based organizations are not run on a purely materialistic basis. The non-materialistic features of a place, its aesthetics, cultural heritage, community feelings, transcendence, should be integrated into sustainability management.
This work breaks with the economic logic of efficiency and profit maximization, and suggests that organizations should inform their sustainability by encompassing feelings of identity with and attachment to place. According to this vision, the book collects scholarly contributions aimed to support the ecological transformation of humankind by exploring both theoretical and practical models that integrate the sense of the place, ethics, and spirituality in new ways of organizing of economic and social life.