The rapid growth of technology has led to increased pollution levels, the depletion of natural resources, and climate change. These ecological challenges have helped increase our awareness of how our actions as humans negatively impact nature and the environment and the notion that humans need to bear more responsibility for their actions as they relate to nature.
This is where social ecology comes in.
This article will introduce the social ecology concept, touch on its origins, highlight its theory, and then provide a few examples of social ecology in action.
Definition of social ecology
Social ecologists argue that unfair hierarchal structures and relationships within society are to blame for today's climate crisis and the continued degradation of the environment. One of the most fundamental characteristics of social ecology is its framework for understanding how our activities and behaviours affect the environment. Social ecologists examine how people interact with their environment and how these relationships might be modified to produce a more sustainable society. Social ecology aims to create a society where humans are connected to and live in harmony with nature.
Social ecology studies the interaction and response between individuals towards the environment around them and how these interactions affect society and the environment as a whole.
Foundation
The concept of social ecology was formed in the mid-1960s, during the birth of the global environmental and American civil rights movements. By the late 1970s, it had become a much more visible issue among the public due to increased societal opposition to nuclear power.
Fig. 1 – Murray Bookchin.
Social ecology portrays ecological issues as stemming primarily from social problems, particularly various forms of hierarchy and dominance. It aims to address these problems through the model of a society tailored to human growth and the biosphere3.
Murray Bookchin, an American political philosopher, author, historian, and social theorist, pioneered the idea of social ecology. Bookchin established and refined the social ecology and urban planning theory within anarchist, socialist, and ecological thought4.
Bookchin was a pioneer within the environmental movement, a well-known anti-capitalist, and a proponent of ecological and democratic social decentralisation. Since the 1960s, his ideas have impacted various social groups, including the New Left, anti-nuclear, anti-globalisation, Occupy Wall Street, and the American green movements.
Social ecology theory
According to social ecology theory, humans are a part of nature, not separate from it. As a result, all human activity impacts the environment. It is vital to note that social ecology does not believe in hierarchy or the dominance of people over nature but rather in collaboration and mutual aid.
Social ecology theory embraces three main concepts:
Self-management
People's ability to control themselves and their communities without relying on external authority to make decisions. This kind of self-management can be achieved through participatory democracy, in which everyone is given an equal voice.
Ecological restructuring entails the creation of sustainable solutions (e.g., renewable energy) to address the negative impact that technology has on nature.
Communalism is a political and economic concept that combines communal ownership and confederations of highly decentralised independent communities.
Difference between deep ecology and social ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that emphasises the inherent worth of all living things (regardless of their utility to humans), and the reorganisation of modern human communities in conformity with such views.
Deep ecology also argues that the natural environment is a large web of interconnections in which the survival of each organism is contingent on the survival of others within the ecosystem. It asserts that non-essential human activity that exploits the biological and ecological jeopardises all microorganisms that comprise the natural order, not just humans.
However, deep ecology does not seek to integrate humans with the natural world. On the contrary, it considers the very biological presence of humans in vast numbers to be inherently harmful to nature and that even the most fundamental means of human survival to be harmful to ecological systems.
The main difference between these two theories is that human social growth, biological development, human communities and eco-communities are reintegrated into social ecology, resulting in a rational and ecological society6.
Examples of social ecology
Some of the most simple examples of social ecology are how we produce and consume food or use transportation. Unfortunately, our current food system negatively impacts the environment and is unsustainable in the long term. It is essential to understand that when we refer to the food system, we refer to the whole process involved in feeding oneself, i.e., production, transformation, transport, and consumption.
According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), food production contributes significantly to air pollution. Agriculture is the single most significant source of ammonia pollution and other nitrogen compounds, impacting soil quality and, as a result, the soil's ability to sustain plant and animal productivity.
In terms of food loss, the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimate that the global volume of food waste is 1.6 billion tones of 'primary product equivalents'. Total food waste for the edible portion is 1.3 billion tonnes.
In light of the data above, it is fair to ask what social ecology has to do with it?
Food systems represent a flagship socio-ecological system because cultivated and wild foods directly depend on natural ecosystems and processes. Although healthy ecosystems are a necessary precondition for food production, they are not sufficient to ensure the continued benefits of local food systems.
In response, environmental advocates and farmers have developed alternative production practices that are more agriculturally oriented and less harmful to nature. These include organic agriculture, low-input agriculture, biodynamic agriculture, among others.
Food systems are a classic example of social ecology because everything we eat is part of the ecosystem and part of nature. Sustainable food systems are still a goal of environmental advocates in their quest for social welfare. Keeping in mind that food systems are socio-ecological, it's important to remember that they have multiple interactions between humans and nature in the ecosystem. Therefore, policies and a framework for action must be in place to foster this joint action between humans and nature.
There are also examples of social ecology where people and ideas have come together to strengthen social ecology. Among such models is the Kurdish movement, which was inspired by social ecology and its principles.
Kurdish Movement
Abdullah Calan, the leader of the Kurdish movement, was inspired by Bookchin's reflections on social ecology and libertarian municipalism to develop the concept of democratic confederalism. He aimed to unite the people of the Middle East in a confederation of democratic, multicultural, and ecological communes.
Calan's concept, adopted by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in 2005, indicates a significant ideological shift away from the PKK's former goal of constructing a Marxist-Leninist state. Moreover, Calan's internationalist idea was well embraced by the PKK's Syrian counterpart, the Party of Democratic Union (PYD), which would become the world's first organisation to create a society based on democratic confederalism principles8.
The cantons of Rojava in Syrian Kurdistan federated into autonomous municipalities in 2014, adopting a social contract that established a decentralised, non-hierarchical society based on direct democracy, feminism, ecology, cultural pluralism principles, participatory politics, and economic cooperatives.
Social-ecological model
Socio-ecological models were established to better comprehend the dynamic interrelationships among numerous personal and environmental elements. After World War I, sociologists linked with the Chicago School introduced socio-ecological models to urban studies to respond to most developmental psychologists' limited scope of research.
Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Framework for Human Development was first introduced as a conceptual model in the 1970s, later codified as a theory in the 1980s, and regularly amended by Bronfenbrenner until he died in 2005.
Bronfenbrenner's original thesis examined how an individual's environment shaped them into who they are. It proposed that we consider the entire ecological system to comprehend human development. Bronfenbrenner recognised the importance of biological and genetic characteristics of the individual in human development in later revisions9.
The assumption behind this systems theory is that everything affects everything else. The basic premise of systems theory is that one event influences another and that existence does not occur in a vacuum but rather concerning changing circumstances.
Everything from our DNA to the political environment impacts our individual and collective behaviour. In other words, it is impossible to comprehend our growth and behaviour without considering these factors fully.
The social ecology of resilience
Resilience theory and ecological resilience have evolved as valuable tools for studying social-ecological systems, which are structures in which humans and nature interact. The idea of resilience outlines how dynamic systems functioning at various spatial and temporal scales interact, sometimes slowing change and sometimes speeding it forward10.
Climate change, for example, represents the fact that greenhouse gas emissions are disrupting the climate system, which is a pretty large-scale system both spatially (it acts globally) and temporally (it operates over a long time)
Social-ecological resilience is born within resilience theory and ecological resilience. It refers to the ability of a socio-ecological system to adapt to change and disruption without creating a new system with different processes and structures but to adapt to change.
Social-ecological resilience can also be known as the transformation ability of ecological systems, which, as a result, has significant implications for human well-being and resource management.
Social ecology is considered a somewhat radical political ecology theory based on communalism. At its core, it has opposed a capitalist system of production and consumption due to its highly negative impact on nature. Instead, it aims to set up a moral, decentralised, united society guided by reason. While Bookchin distanced himself from Anarchism later in his life, the philosophical theory of social ecology is often considered a form of eco-anarchism.
Social Ecology - Key takeaways
Social ecology is an ecological theory that aims to create a society where humans are connected and live in harmony with nature.
This theory was mainly created due to industrialisation's harmful effects on human beings.
Murray Bookchin created it. He was a political philosopher, author, historian, and social theorist from the United States.
Bookchin originated and refined the theory of social ecology and urban planning within anarchist, socialist, and ecological thought, making him a pioneer in the environmental movement.
According to the theory of Social Ecology, Humans are a part of nature, not apart from it, which means that all human activity impacts the environment.
Social ecology is considered a political ecology theory based on communalism.
Social ecology studies the interaction between individuals and their environment, asking how these interactions affect society and the environment as a whole.
It has opposed a capitalist system of production and consumption due to its highly negative impact on nature. Instead, it aims to set up a moral, decentralised, united society guided by reason.
Geneva Environmental Network, 2021
Murray, 2006.
Light, 1998.
Best, 1998.
Richerson, 1977.
Allen et al., 2016.
Rahman et al., 2021.
Kenan, 2019.
Howe, 2009.
Garmestani, 2019.
References
- Fig. 1 – Murray Bookchin (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Murray_Bookchin.jpg) by Janet Biehl (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Murray_Bookchin.jpg) licensed by PD (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Murray_Bookchin.jpg).
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