'Nature' in Deep Ecology and Social Ecology: Contesting the Core

In: Journal of political ideologies, Volume 5, Issue 2, p. 247-268

Abstract

"Nature" is a core principle in ecological political thought, & if political ecology has contributed anything new to the discipline of political theory, then part of what that consists in is the placing of the "human-nature relationship" at the center of theoretical concern. This notwithstanding, ecological political thought, & its analysis, has tended to focus upon the "ecocentric-anthropocentric divide" & the normative question on "values in nature" to the extent that conceptual differences about the "nature of nature" in ecological thought have been somewhat neglected. Here, I explore differing decontestations of nature in deep ecology & social ecology & assess their import for the different normative arguments each of these ecovariant ideologies makes for human action in the natural world. I show that these different decontestations of nature are crucial to this normative argument, & this has important implications for the study of ecological political thought. Adapted from the source document.