Suchergebnisse

There are two conflicting tendencies in the ecological movement, one a vague, formless, often self-contradictory "deep ecology," & the other a socially oriented "social ecology." Deep ecology has no sense that ecological problems have social origins; it contains the implicit notion that humanity "accurses" the natural world. Social ecology is avowedly rational & humanistic, concerned with social, economic, & political issues, as well as with environmental problems. F. S. J. Ledgister

Offers a neoliberal critique of Murray Bookchin's writings on social ecology (SE), focusing on how his attempt to unite a leftist critique of liberalism with contemporary environmental concerns is undermined by the comparisons he draws between market systems & ecosystems. Bookchin's project is assailed for failing to acknowledge that these systems function in accord with impersonal principles of self-organization. Conclusions suggest that Left-oriented environmental analysis lacks the intellectual resources to develop a viable approach to SE, & that evolutionary liberalism, imbued with insights from deep ecology, provides a sound basis for SE theory. Adapted from the source document.

MURRAY BOOKCHIN'S INFLUENTIAL WRITINGS ON SOCIAL ECOLOGY ATTEMPT TO UNITE THE TRADITIONAL LEFTIST CRITIQUE OF LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY WITH CONTEMPORARY ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS. HIS WORK IS UNDERMINED, HOWEVER, IN PART BY THE DUBIOUS COMPARISONS HE MAKES BETWEEN MARKET SYSTEMS AND ECOSYSTEMS, AND IN PARTICULAR BY HIS FAILURE TO UNDERSTAND THAT THESE SYSTEMS OPERATE IN A LIKE FASHION ACCORDING TO IMPERSONAL PRINCIPLES OF SELF-ORGANIZATION. IN THE CASE OF THE MARKET, WHILE THIS IMPERSONAL PROCESS FACILITATES COOPERATION AND EXCHANGE, IT ALSO REWORD THE INSTRUMENTAL NATURE OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES. DEEP ECOLOGISTS ARE THEREFOR RIGHT TO CRITICIZE THE UNWILLINGNESS OF PARTICIPANTS IN MARKET SOCIETIES TO APPRECIATE THE INTRINSIC VALUE OF NATURE. THE CHALLENGES THEY POSE TO THE HUMAN COMMUNITY - TO BECOME LESS ANTHROPOCENTRIC AND TO APPROACH PROPERTY RIGHTS WITH A SENSE OF STEWARDSHIP - MAY BE TAKEN UP BY AN "EVOLUTIONARY LIBERALISM," WHICH WOULD STRIVE TO ACHIEVE HARMONY BETWEEN HUMANS AND THE NATURAL WORLD UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF RULES ORDERED BY SELF-ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES.

While ecocriticism has become a respected field in literary theory and in the broader landscape of aesthetic philosophy, it could benefit from an enhanced ethical-political framework which social ecology - an underrated critical theory developed by Murray Bookchin - could provide. This essay attempts to tease out the potentials for such a framework, integrating the insights of social ecology, ecocriticism, Critical Realism, and John Dewey's aesthetic concepts into a layered idea-set used for the study of all kinds of aesthetic objects, from popular art to the gallery arts. Its key principles are the emergence of aesthetic objects (including formal artworks) out of congealed human experience, the relation between organism and environment in assessing meaning, the breakdown of implicit or overt hierarchies within a work, and the idea of the artist and art-critic as a "gardener".

In a symposium on John Clark's "A Social Ecology" (1997), Joel Kovel views Clark's essay as an admirable effort to integrate socialist & anarchist views on nature & ecology, though it does not adequately stress the role of capital as an abstract form in driving the current ecological crisis. By not assigning a central place to capital in his theory, Clark ends by advocating more responsible decision making instead of calling for what is truly needed, a socialist revolution. Kate Soper expresses concern about Clark's penchant for abstraction & speculation, particularly in the area of subjectivity. Mary Mellor describes Clark's position as teleological & unduly silent toward the material relations that structure human societies & mediate their interactions with the natural world. In Reply, Clark hesitates to position his work squarely in the anarchist tradition & regrets that the essay can be read as ignoring issues of material relations & the expropriation of labor. Issue is taken with several of the interpretations offered by Soper & Mellor. D. Ryfe

The collection of essays in The Social Ecology of Border Landscapes defi nes borders and borderlands to include territorial interfaces, marginal spaces (physical, sociological and psychological) and human consciousness. From theoretical and conceptual presentations on social ecology and its agencies and representations, to case studies and concrete projects and initiatives, the contributing authors uncover a thread of contemporary thought and action on this important emerging fi eld. The essays aim to defi ne the territories of social ecology, to investigate how social agencies can activate ecological processes and systems, and to understand how the interactions of people and ecosystems can create new sustainable landscapes across tangible and intangible territorial rifts