Disrupting the cynical distance: what management educators can learn from participatory art

This provocation challenges the notion that activist management educators who strive to promote particular political agendas or social goals, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), need to make these values transparent and speak up for them. Instead, we draw on Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, particularly his insights into contemporary ideologies’ reliance on cynical distance, to suggest an alternative approach to activist management education characterised by overidentification. Rather than directly advocating for the SDGs, this approach involves taking the existing system's unsustainable values even more seriously than expected, thereby disrupting the cynical distance that allows for the recognition of the SDGs while acting as if they do not exist. Inspired by participatory art, we propose three principles that may serve as focal points and progression lines for management educators wishing to work with overidentification as an alternative strategy for achieving the SDGs through management education.