Globalization, Innovation and Sustainability in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and All My Sons

Abstract

This conference paper examines Arthur Miller’s All My Sons (1947) and The Crucible (1953) through the intersecting lenses of globalization, innovation, and sustainability, arguing that Miller’s drama anticipates many of the ethical dilemmas that define the contemporary global order. Rather than treating globalization merely as economic integration or technological advancement, the paper interprets it as a condition in which expanding systems of production, information, and institutional power generate consequences that increasingly transcend geographical and moral boundaries. Drawing upon the theoretical insights of Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck, Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Joseph Stiglitz, and Hans Jonas, the study develops a literary framework that connects Miller’s dramatic vision with debates on responsible innovation, human capability, global risk, inequality, and ethical accountability. Joe Keller’s industrial enterprise in All My Sons is read as a critique of innovation divorced from responsibility, while Salem’s judicial machinery in The Crucible is analysed as a model of institutional innovation that manufactures fear, conformity, and epistemic violence. Through a comparative reading, the paper demonstrates that both plays expose two complementary forms of unsustainable modernity, one rooted in profit-driven production and the other in power-driven governance.Aligned with the conference theme, “Global Challenges in Business: Innovation and Sustainability,” this paper contributes a humanities perspective to business and management discourse by arguing that sustainable innovation cannot be evaluated solely through productivity, technological efficiency, or institutional continuity. Instead, Miller insists that genuine sustainability rests upon ethical responsibility, human dignity, and collective accountability. The paper ultimately proposes that literary texts offer indispensable insights into contemporary global challenges by revealing the moral consequences of innovation when systems privilege survival over humanity and authority over conscience.