CLARK, John. A Social Ecology
Nature. Social ecologyCLARK, John P. (New Orleans, USA. 21/6/1945 - )«Humanity is Nature achieving self-consciousness.»—Elisée Reclus [1]
Presentation [2]
In its deepest and most authentic sense, a social ecology is the awakening earth community reflecting on itself, uncovering its history, exploring its present predicament, and contemplating its future. [3] One aspect of this awakening is a process of philosophical reflection. As a philosophical approach, a social ecology investigates the ontological, epistemological, ethical and political dimensions of the relationship between the social and the ecological, and seeks the practical wisdom that results from such reflection. It seeks to give us, as beings situated in the course of real human and natural history, guidance in facing specific challenges and opportunities. In doing so, it develops an analysis that is both holistic and dialectical, and a social practice that might best be described as an eco-communitarianism.
Continued:
The Social and the Ecological
A Dialectical Holism
No Nature
The Ecological Self
A Social Ecology of Value
An Ecology of the Imagination
An Ecological Imaginary
Freedom and Domination
Eco-Communitarian Politics
Social Eco-nomics
The New Leviathan
The Future of Social Ecology
[1] Elisée Reclus, L’Homme et la Terre, 6 vol. (Paris : Librairie Universelle, 1905-08), Vol. I, p. i
[2] The article can be used if you note that it was published in M. Zimmerman et al., Environmental Philosophy, second edition (Prentice Hall, 1998) p. 416-440.
[3] «Social ecology» is also an interdisciplinary field of academic study that investigates the interrelationship between human social institutions and ecological or environmental issues. It is closely related to human ecology, the area of the biological sciences that deals with the role of human beings in ecosystems. However, studies in social ecology are much broader in scope, incorporating many areas of social and natural science in their analysis. This interdisciplinary social ecology offers much of the empirical data which philosophical social ecology utilizes in its theoretical reflection.