Social ecology

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This article is about the socialist philosophy, not the academic discipline (see human ecology)

Social ecology developed by Elisee Reclus and revived by Murray Bookchin in the 1960s.

It holds that present ecological problems are rooted in deep-seated social problems, particularly in dominatory hierarchical political and social systems. These have resulted in an uncritical acceptance of an overly competitive grow-or-die philosophy. It suggests that this cannot be resisted by individual action such as ethical consumerism but must be addressed by more nuanced ethical thinking and collective activity grounded in radical democratic ideals. The complexity of relationships between people and with nature is emphasised, along with the importance of establishing social structures that take account of this.

Social ecology is, in the words of its leading exponents, "a coherent profound critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends" as well as "a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society".^[who?]

What literally defines social ecology as "social" is its recognition of the often overlooked fact that nearly all our present ecological problems arise from deep-seated social problems. Conversely, present ecological problems cannot be clearly understood, much less resolved, without resolutely dealing with problems within society. To make this point more concrete: economic, ethnic, cultural, and gender conflicts, among many others, lie at the core of the most serious ecological dislocations we face today—apart, to be sure, from those that are produced by natural catastrophes.

Undoubtedly social ecology is one of the most influential currents in the eco-anarchist thread within anarchism. 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, Toward an Ecological Society, The Ecology of Freedom, and a host of others.

Social ecology locates the roots of the ecological crisis firmly in relations of domination between people. The domination of nature is seen as a product of domination within society, but this domination only reaches crisis proportions under capitalism. In the words of Murray Bookchin:

"The notion that man must dominate nature emerges directly from the domination of man by man… But it was not until organic community relations… 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, bourgeois 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." (Post Scarcity Anarchism, p. 85)

"The plundering of the human spirit by the market place is paralleled by the plundering of the earth by capital." (Ibid., p. 86)

Beginning in 1995, Murray Bookchin became increasingly critical of anarchism, and in 1999 he took a decisive stand against anarchist ideology. Instead Bookchin came to recognize social ecology as a genuinely new form of libertarian socialism and positioned its politics firmly in the framework of communalism.^[1]

1 Contrasting views
2 See also
3 References
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Contrasting views

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Bookchin, Murray: The Ecology of Freedom: The Emergence and Dissolution of Hierarchy (Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005).
Bookchin, Murray: Post Scarcity Anarchism (Montreal and New York: Black Rose Books, 1986)
Bookchin Breaks with Anarchism by Janet Biehl