User:Гармонический Мир/Social ecology (Bookchin)

This page is about the social philosophy. For the academic field, see social ecology (academic field). For a model of integrated social and ecological system, see Social ecological model.

Scheme of sustainable development: at the confluence of three constituent parts. (2006)

Social ecology is a critical social theory founded by American anarchist and libertarian socialist author Murray Bookchin. Conceptualized as a critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends, it espouses a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society. This version advocates a reconstructive and transformative outlook on social and environmental issues, and promotes a directly democratic, con-federal politics. As a body of ideas, social ecology envisions a moral economy that moves beyond scarcity and hierarchy, toward a world that reharmonizes human communities with the natural world, while celebrating diversity, creativity and freedom. Bookchin suggests that the roots of current ecological and social problems can be traced to hierarchical modes of social organization. Social ecologists claim that the systemic issue of hierarchy cannot be resisted by individual actions alone such as ethical consumerism but must be addressed by more nuanced ethical thinking and collective activity grounded in radically democratic ideals. The complexity of relationships between people and nature is emphasized, along with the importance of establishing more mutualistic social structures that take account of this.

History

Social ecology's social component comes from its position that nearly all of the world's ecological problems stem from social problems; with these social problems in turn arising from structures and relationships of dominating hierarchy. They argue that apart from those produced by natural catastrophes, the most serious ecological dislocations of the 20th and 21st centuries have as their cause economic, ethnic, cultural, and gender conflicts, among many others. Present ecological problems, social ecologists maintain, cannot be clearly understood, much less resolved, without resolutely dealing with problems within society.

Social Ecology conceives humanity as possessing what is called First nature, Second nature and Third nature. Social ecology conceptualises humanity as a product of natural (biological) evolution which coexists within other diverse forms of biological life within the natural world. This is called First nature and broadly refers to the diverse biological forms of life that exist within the natural world. However, humanity is regarded as unique to other forms of life within the natural world.

Unlike other forms of life, human beings - as a "unique agent of consciousness" - possess a Second nature which imbues them with the ability to create their own environments as opposed to merely adapting to existing environments. The evolutionary ability of humans to change their own environment for their own ends - known as consociation (creating societies) - can result in both progressive and regressive ways. To illustrate:

"As a unique product of natural evolution [humanity brings it's powers of reasoning, it's creative fingers, it's high degree of conscious consociation - all qualitative developments of natural history - to nature at times as sources of help and at other times as sources of harm."

Given that Second nature is centred around humanity's capacity for rationality and consociation, social ecology traces the social development of humanity throughout the course of their biological evolution (First nature). Social Ecology stresses that humanity can and should strive to use it's biological capacity for rationality (self-reflective action) and consociation to recognise the symbiotic connection they have with the natural world. These capacities are also referred to as libertarian rationality or consciousness. Humanity's "third nature of authority and rule" coexisting alongside first and second nature, alludes to the potential for different forms of hierarchy to arise within societies. Therefore, the capacities that exist within humanity's biological evolution have the potential to be used in libertarian and authoritarian ways.

Social ecology places emphasis on technology in facilitating the social development of human societies throughout their history within the natural world. Like rationality, technology also has the capacity to create a liberatory effect within societies or the capacity to oppress the majority of people within it, while privileging elite groups. As a result, Social Ecology makes the case that human rationality within the field of modern science runs the risk of becoming captive to instrumentalism, which amounts "to a mere object for human manipulation - an ethical degradation of nature as something that merely exists for us."

Alternatively, social ecology recognises that the true role of science is a discipline that must serve to encourage the cultivation of knowledge rather than serve as a means of domination.. Instead of viewing other biological forms of life as an object, social ecology emphasises the role science should maintain; that is in recognising the biological evolutionary processes that different forms of life play an active role within the natural world. This forms part of the libertarian consciousness of humanity. However, libertarian rationality consists of both the deeply interwoven rational and creative capacities of human beings.

Social ecology is associated with the ideas and works of Murray Bookchin, who had written on such matters from the 1950s until his death, and, from the 1960s, had combined these issues with revolutionary social anarchism. His works include Post-Scarcity Anarchism (1971), Toward an Ecological Society (1980), and The Ecology of Freedom (1982).

Social ecology locates the roots of the ecological crisis firmly in relations of hierarchy and domination between people. In the framework of social ecology, "the very notion of the domination of nature by man stems from the very real domination of human by human." While the domination of nature is seen as a product of domination within society, this domination only reaches crisis proportions under capitalism. In the words of Bookchin:

The notion that man must dominate nature emerges directly from the domination of man by man… But it was not until organic community relation … dissolved into market relationships that the planet itself was reduced to a resource for exploitation. This centuries-long tendency finds its most exacerbating development in modern capitalism. Owing to its inherently competitive nature, capitalist society not only pits humans against each other, it also pits the mass of humanity against the natural world. Just as men are converted into commodities, so every aspect of nature is converted into a commodity, a resource to be manufactured and merchandised wantonly. … The plundering of the human spirit by the market place is paralleled by the plundering of the earth by capital

While identifying himself within the anarchist tradition for most of his career, beginning in 1995, Bookchin became increasingly critical of anarchism, and in 1999 took a decisive stand against anarchist ideology. He had come to recognize social ecology as a genuinely new form of libertarian socialism, and positioned its politics firmly in the framework of a political ideology which he called Communalism.

See also

• Democratic Federation of Northern Syria
• Kurdistan Workers' Party
• Biodiversity
• Conservation (ethic)
• Conservation movement
• Earth science
• Ecology
• Eco-socialism
• Environmental movement
• Global warming
• Laudato si'
• Montréal Écologique
• Natural environment
• Panarchy
• Polytely
• Recycling
• School of Social Ecology
• Sustainability

Further reading

• Bookchin, Murray (2004). Post-Scarcity Anarchism. Stirling: AK Press. ISBN 1-904859-06-2. OCLC 232006054.
• Bookchin, Murray (2005). The Ecology of Freedom. Stirling: AK Press. ISBN 1-904859-26-7.
• Light, Andrew (ed.) (1998). Social Ecology After Bookchin. New York: Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-57230-379-9. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)

External links

• Institute for Social Ecology
• Transnational Institute of Social Ecology
• New Compass
• Libertarian Communist Library Murray Bookchin holdings
• Social Ecology London English study/action group exploring the philosophy of social ecology.