Suchergebnisse

Contents -- List of Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Series Preface -- 1 Introduction to general ecology: The ecologization of thinking Erich Hörl -- 2 Computational logic and ecological rationality Luciana Parisi -- 3 Elements for an ecology of separation: Beyond ecological constructivism Frédéric Neyrat -- 4 General ecology, economy, and organology Bernard Stiegler -- 5 The modern invention of nature Didier Debaise -- 6 Deep times and media mines: A descent into ecological materiality of technology Jussi Parikka -- 7 Planetary immunity: Biopolitics, Gaia theory, the holobiont, and the systems counterculture Bruce Clarke -- 8 Ecologizing biopolitics, or, What is the "bio-" of bioart? Cary Wolfe -- 9 Ecologies of communion, contagion, &c, especially Bataille David Wills -- 10 Metafiction and general ecology: Making worlds with worlds James Burton -- 11 An ecology of differences: Communication, the Web, and the question of borders Elena Esposito -- 12 Specters of ecology Timothy Morton -- 13 Devastation Matthew Fuller and Olga Goriunova -- 14 Virtual ecology and the question of value Brian Massumi -- Index

In the focus of the paper there are some basic insights and ideas of rational choice theory, that is the "core" of contemporary economic theory. Also, rational choice theory is the "center" of modern political science and is used in various other scientific disciplines, such as: sociology, philosophy, political science, psychology and the like. There are two main goals of this paper. One is to point out the limitations of rational choice theory as one of the theories of economic behavior (and decision making). The second goal is to analyze psychological programs of research of heuristics and bias in behavioral economics and to consider the importance of alternative concepts, models and theories from the point of view of improving the understanding of economic and social behavior.

Experimental economics and bounded rationality are very different from one another, but both claim to offer a more general and more empirical type of economic theory. Experimental economists, in addition, claim that their game-theoretic analyses provide rigorous, calculable, inferences from individual decisions to society as a whole. They claim to be describing the basis of social stability, although the argument depends on a unitary conception of "society" that ethnologists have now largely rejected. Both groups view rationality as inherently or originally individualistic and "utility maximizing" rather than inherently or originally social—albeit for entirely different reasons. Neither recognizes rationality as inherently bound up with organizations. These views have no basis in ethnography and are sharply in conflict with the stress on local knowledge in the most successful contemporary development policies. A crucial empirical issue is the nature and power of indigenous decision algorithms. The economists treat them as non-existent, insignificant, or erroneous. I show that they are organizationally situated and part of the organizational process, genuinely optimizing, and the basis of cultural ecological adaptation. Moreover, it is this external adaptation, not an internal game-like system of self-perpetuating rules, that is the ultimate basis of social stability, as well as dynamism.

An exploration of how the terms "community" & "fraternity" are used & perceived today. While the original, religious dimension of community has never been universalized socially, it has found a place in sociological usage. Herman Schmalenbach's essay "Communion -- A Sociological Category" (see On Society and Experience: Selected Papers, Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1977) illustrates the transition from a religious communion in a spiritual relationship to a modern secular one in a social relationship. Among new expressions of communal forms are a currently diluted form of ethnicity & rejection of modern trends (eg, fraternization around nuclear protest, abortion, environmental issues). Despite boundless possibilities for fraternization, it is concluded that modern civilization is not a community, although US experience in practicing fraternization within a secular world is aiming toward it. 4 References. J. White

AbstractThe Gaia hypothesis is often used as the basis for demonstrating environmental integrity in current arguments within the field of ecological philosophy. However, when citing the Gaia hypothesis, people are often vague when defining its connotations and extensions. By analysing the controversies surrounding the Gaia hypothesis, we can achieve an appropriate conception of its ontology, including the blindness of the strong theoretical approach and the rationality of the weak one. Gaia's naturalistic epistemology, holistic methodology and systematic values can thus be discriminated. Gaia has strong significance for allowing human beings to understand the Earth's ecological environment and is an effective ecological holistic theory.

The last few decades have seen the rise of 'ecological modernization theory' (EMT) as a "green capitalist" tradition extending modernization theory into environmental sociology. This article uses a synthesis of political economy, world-systems theory, and political, economic, and environmental sociology to demonstrate that the EMT presumption of growth and profit as economic priorities (alongside its neglect of core-periphery relations) produces many feedback loops which fatally undermine the viability of EMT's own political, technological, and social prescriptions, alongside creating problems for the fundamental EMT concept of 'ecological rationality.' Furthermore, this article attempts to explain why "green capitalist" approaches to environmental analysis have influence within policy and social science circles despite their inadequacies within environmental sociology. Finally, this article argues that in order to address the ecological challenges of our era, environmental sociology needs to reject "green capitalist" traditions like 'ecological modernization theory' which presuppose the desirability and maintenance of profit and growth as economic priorities (and predominantly fail to critique power imbalances between core and non-core nations), and instead return to the development of traditions willing to critique the fundamental traits of the capitalist world-system.

Concerns about immigration are salient in the European Union and in Malta in particular. Previous research has demonstrated deep antipathy towards the Arab community in Malta, and social representations of Arabs are mired in a conflation of ethnic and religious categories with negative connotations. This paper presents evidence of the potency, within the public sphere, of negative arguments from cultural essentialism, concerning the integration of Arabs in Europe. The data was obtained abductively from a data corpus containing positive, mixed and negative arguments about Arabs and their integration. Results show evidence of the almost total exclusivity of cultural essentialism. All such arguments posited Arabic culture as an underlying essence that makes integration with Arabs difficult or impossible, yet different arguments were distinguishable by emphasis. Results pointed towards forms of culturally essentialist views that vary in their emphasis of different aspects of cultural essentialism. Reductionist, determinist, bounded and temporal aspects of cultural essentialism were all emphasised by respondents. The essentialist exceptions to negative arguments from cultural essentialism were extremely few in number and were posed tentatively by participants. Their paucity and manner of delivery give strength to the claim that it is strictly an Arabic cultural essence that is deemed to make integration impossible in the eyes of participants. Findings are discussed in light of the communicative functions that these dominant argumentative strategies fulfill.

"Fast and Frugal Heuristics" published on by Oxford University Press.

Highly toxic pesticides bring negative externalities to water pollution, which increase the demand for green pesticides that are low-toxic and high-efficiency. With the implementation of the unique the Centralized Pesticide Distribution (CPD) policy aiming to reduce the use of chemical pesticides in Huangshan, we try to explore the factors that affect farmers' acceptance of CPD and thus change their pesticides selection. Based on the theory of farmers' ecological rationality, we build a decision-making ecosystem on accepting CPD and assuming that farmers' behavior is determined hierarchically by factors, then the Logistic-AISM model is used for empirical testing using data collected from 233 representative farmers. The results show that the proportion of agri-income and participation in cooperatives fundamentally affected choices for CPD acceptance through two middle-level indirect factor: government publicity and the availability of agri-information by changing farmers' cognition on pesticides and production status. Thus, CPD may be improved by selling a richer variety of insecticides and implementing more publicity. Lessons from China inspire other intensive farming countries to promote green pesticides by: expanding the sales channel of green agri-products, playing the auxiliary role of cooperatives, and inventing more eco-friendly pesticides.

Modern economic rationality is an instrumental rationality geared towards the idea of 'progress': the continuous need for wealth production (in quantitative terms). This rationality underscores our political and legal order (amongst others). Law and politics can be said to serve the interests of progress. However, we have become increasingly aware of the side effects this rationality brings about. These side effects can be conceptualised, following the German social theorist Ulrich Beck, in terms of 'modern risks'; they are manufactured uncertainties. Global warming can be considered a modern risk. It is becoming more and more plausible that modern economic rationality and ways of wealth production are contributing factors to global warming and, hence, climate change. It has an impact on water issues in the broadest sense. Climate change poses a threat to the natural environment and carries the potential of catastrophic social consequences. To deal with it implies managing its ecological and social side effects. The question is how. The side effects of economic rationality are countered by another rationality, which one could characterise as 'security' or 'safety' rationality. With this approach we are considered to be in a 'state of exception' - a situation out of the ordinary that demands attention with an aim to return to, or re-establish, the ordinary. The state of exception, as a theoretical concept, suggests an increase of power structures in times of crisis. What is new is that global warming and climate change can be considered as an ecological state of exception leading to a new normality that demands different ways as to how we want to live together in our social and natural environment. In this article I seek to explore the idea of an ecological state of exception as the 'normal' state of affairs, demanding a new rationality and, consequently, ask to what extent a reconsideration of self-evident assumptions that underscore modem contemporary life, economic, political and social is necessary and ...