THE COMING ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION Pt 5 Ecological Praxis (original) (raw)
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THE COMING ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION Pt 6 Environmentalism as Politics
This part argues that realising the potential for a new ecological modus vivendi requires a new set of political practices and institutions. These practices and institutions affirm the co-construction of nature and culture through the practical reappropriation of the human powers alienated to the state and capital and the common control and comprehension of these powers as social powers. This creates the foundation for a renewal of public agency within public life and for popular identification with environmental and related public policies. This part pays particular attention to the notion of community self-regulation. To keep the above and the below in an interactive, organic fusion means going back to the grassroots and tapping into the social and human and natural roots that feed a genuinely Green politics. This requires that Greens start organising, campaigning and talking face to face, door to door, street to street, building a Green social identity neighbourhood by neighbourhood, community by community. A functioning social order requires extensive public spaces for social learning and cognitive praxis. A public life worthy of the name creates opportunities for citizen discourse and interaction, a civic solidarity in which citizens share social knowledge, discussing freely and critically the issues of common concern, the problems that confront all individuals collectively within communities and societies. Effective political engagement on the part of new and environmental movements is also an involvement in a public life on the part of individuals who have an "ecological consciousness". To nurture this ecological sensibility so that it contributes to cultural transformation requires a number of supportive conditions and social innovations generated by ecological praxis.
The Coming Ecological Revolution: The Principles and Politics of a Social and Moral Ecology
2011
THE COMING ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION This book has now been published and is available for purchase. Abstract Part 1 The Emerging Ecological Consciousness This part connects the contemporary environmental crisis with the wider societal crisis. The environmental crisis is considered to be the product of a wider system failure. The perspective taken is that one civilisation is in the process of decay and another in the process of emerging. A fundamental critical self-examination of ourselves and our communities of struggle is necessary to locate and situate the choices, possibilities and strategies with respect to the circumscribed options within the system and the feasible alternatives to that system. This part examines the nature of the environmental crisis, paying particular attention to climate change and global poverty and inequality. Social and environmental justice are shown to be mutually supportive, the low-carbon economy which is a condition of the survival of civilised life also being socially just, egalitarian and democratic. The emergence of an ecological consciousness is shown to be part of the process of revolutionizing society, restructuring power, changing culture and emphasising the quality of individual lives over the quantity of material accumulation and possession. Part 2 The Coming Revolution in Economic Thought The environmental crisis is related to the crisis in economic thought and practice. The crisis in vision in economics is related to the economic system in general. This part exposes economics to be an ideology in the critical sense, that is, as not knowledge as such but a distorted knowledge concerning appearances which serves to conceal contradictions, material interests and power relations to the benefit of the dominant class. Conventional economics treats ‘the economy’ as an abstraction which functions independently of the political, social, moral and ecological context. This part restores economics to its true status as a means. Part of dealing with the future orientated problem of ecology involves examining in what direction economic thought must go in order to once more become relevant to human beings. The ecological problem is related to the globalisation of economic relations and the ‘free market’ economy. A distinction is made between price and value to reassert use value embedded in communities to the exchange value pursued on the market. The question of morality within market societies is addressed in terms of the need to secure the building blocks of a viable civilisation. The view is taken that the individual of Anglo-American liberalism an abstraction of market relations, a fictional person who exists only in the figure of homo economicus. Real individuals are shown to exist and flourish within a social matrix of reciprocal relations and trust. Part 3 Society as a Learning Mechanism Notions of knowledge and social transformation need to be reworked to take account of genuine change as a process rather than as event. It is a process because the new society only functions and flourishes if the individuals constituting it have developed their moral, political, intellectual and organisational capacities. In this sense, a social and ecological praxis is a form of capacity building which develops the know-how required to constitute the new social order. The argument draws upon the emergence of grass roots organisations and community organisations across the world and seeks to value the contributions that social movements can make not only to social provision but to urban governance. This part is organised around concerns for community, communication and the common good. Part 4 Political Philosophy and Ethics This part examines the emancipatory potentialities of reason and freedom to constitute the good life for human beings. The argument considers politics as creative human self-realisation to possess an ineliminable normative dimension concerning the appropriate regiment for the good. Green political theory is analysed in the context of a philosophical concept of ‘rational freedom’ drawn from the work of Aristotle, Plato, Rousseau, Kant and Hegel. Part 5 Ecological Praxis This part goes from principles to practice to examine how the emerging ecological consciousness can be embedded in social practices and institutions. This is a question not only of how the ecological society can be created, but governed and made to work. This part looks at critical political issues and constructive models, identifies key tasks in organising for political change. Particular attention is paid to the political boundaries of change and the changing boundaries of politics. Part 6 Environmentalism as Politics This part argues that realising the potential for a new ecological modus vivendi requires a new set of political practices and institutions. These practices and institutions affirm the co-construction of nature and culture through the practical reappropriation of the human powers alienated to the state and capital and the common control and comprehension of these powers as social powers. This creates the foundation for a renewal of public agency within public life and for popular identification with environmental and related public policies. This part pays particular attention to the notion of community self-regulation. To keep the above and the below in an interactive, organic fusion means going back to the grassroots and tapping into the social and human and natural roots that feed a genuinely Green politics. This requires that Greens start organising, campaigning and talking face to face, door to door, street to street, building a Green social identity neighbourhood by neighbourhood, community by community. A functioning social order requires extensive public spaces for social learning and cognitive praxis. A public life worthy of the name creates opportunities for citizen discourse and interaction, a civic solidarity in which citizens share social knowledge, discussing freely and critically the issues of common concern, the problems that confront all individuals collectively within communities and societies. Effective political engagement on the part of new and environmental movements is also an involvement in a public life on the part of individuals who have an "ecological consciousness". To nurture this ecological sensibility so that it contributes to cultural transformation requires a number of supportive conditions and social innovations generated by ecological praxis.
THE COMING ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION Pt 1 The Emerging Ecological Consciousness
The Emerging Ecological Consciousness This part connects the contemporary environmental crisis with the wider societal crisis. The environmental crisis is considered to be the product of a wider system failure. The perspective taken is that one civilisation is in the process of decay and another in the process of emerging. A fundamental critical self-examination of ourselves and our communities of struggle is necessary to locate and situate the choices, possibilities and strategies with respect to the circumscribed options within the system and the feasible alternatives to that system. This part examines the nature of the environmental crisis, paying particular attention to climate change and global poverty and inequality. Social and environmental justice are shown to be mutually supportive, the low-carbon economy which is a condition of the survival of civilised life also being socially just, egalitarian and democratic. The emergence of an ecological consciousness is shown to be part of the process of revolutionizing society, restructuring power, changing culture and emphasising the quality of individual lives over the quantity of material accumulation and possession.
The Institutions of an Ecological Society
From The Coming Ecological Revolution Pt 6 Politics By Dr Peter Critchley The scale of the task confronting ecologists in politics should not be underestimated. An ecological praxis amounts to remaking society, remaking society’s interchange with nature, remaking people. This is more than formulating policies, manifestoes and election slogans. It appeals to people not as voters, taxpayers and consumers, an appeal to people as individuals, but to people as social beings capable of acting in concert to reclaim a common space and a common good. The capacity to confront the market society and its commodification of public life and public goods will mean confronting the interests that benefit from these arrangements. One can state the project philosophically as the practical reappropriation of power alienated to the state and capital and the reorganisation of this power as social power. Human beings as social beings in conscious control of their power and practising forms of social self-government. The implications of this general principle in practice are radical and point to conflict with vested interests in the public and private sector that are, structurally and institutionally, part of the problem, not part of the solution. The very demand for justice and equality and democracy implies their absence in the present, which further implies that who have institutionalised their power do not want justice, equality and democracy. History shows that those who benefit most from the status quo do not appreciate movements and forces for change.
Political ecology is a powerful framework for analyzing the underlying causes of environmental change, yet underutilized for guiding an ethical response to the Anthropocene. In this article, I introduce Public Political Ecology as an approach for practicing engaged scholarship in this moment of ecological crisis. A political, ethical and educational project, public political ecology is influenced by Antonio Gramsci's work on the philosophy of praxis. It therefore operates from the understanding that ideas are a material force capable of transforming society in revolutionary ways, and through a community of praxis within which academics can play important roles by engaging more actively with broader publics. Innovations from public geographies such as participatory action research and mapping, service learning, and social media offer important methodologies and tools for this approach. Public political ecology, then, is a means by which political ecologists can serve as earth stewards and thus finally make good on the field's emancipatory claims. L'écologie politique est un cadre puissant pour analyser les causes sous-jacentes du changement environnemental, mais sous-utilisé pour guider une réponse éthique à l'Anthropocène. Dans cet article, je présente l'Écologie Politique Publique comme une approche pour pratiquer le travail engagé dans ce moment de crise écologique. Un projet politique, éthique et éducatif, l'écologie politique publique est influencée par le travail d'Antonio Gramsci sur la philosophie de la praxis. Cela implique donc que les idées sont une force matérielle capable de transformer la société de manière révolutionnaire et à travers une communauté de praxis dans laquelle les universitaires peuvent jouer un rôle important en s'engageant plus activement avec des publics plus larges. Les innovations du domaine des «géographies publiques» telles que la recherche et la cartographie participative, l'apprentissage en cours d'emploi et les médias sociaux offrent des méthodologies et des outils importants pour cette approche. L'écologie politique publique est donc un moyen par lequel les écologistes politiques peuvent servir de «intendants de la terre» et ainsi, finalement, se substituer aux revendications émancipatrices de l'écologie politique. La ecología política es un marco poderoso para analizar las causas subyacentes del cambio ambiental. Sin embargo se ha utilizado poco para guiar una respuesta ética al Antropoceno. En este trabajo, presento la Ecología Política Publica como una forma de practicar la escolaridad comprometida en este momento de crisis ecológica. Un proyecto político, ético y educacional, la ecología política publica es inspirado por el trabajo de Antonio Gramsci en la filosofía de praxis que propone que las ideas sirven como una fuerza material capaz de transformar la sociedad en maneras revolucionarias y usa una comunidad de praxis dentro de la cual los académicos pueden tener un papel importante por estar mas involucrados con públicos mas extensos. Innovaciones de las geografías publicas como la investigación y mapeo acción-participativa, aprender a través del servicio, y los medios sociales ofrecen metodologías y herramientas importantes para practica. La ecología política publica es un método que pueden utilizar los ecologistas políticos para ayudar en administrar la tierra y así por fin cumplir con la misión emancipadora del campo.
This article examines a trend over the past two decades towards more explicit politicization in some areas of the ecovillage movement, particularly where ecovillages engage with related grassroots movements for environmental and social change. It does so using an expanded political ecology framework, also drawing upon 'Multi-Level Perspective on Sustainability Transitions' and Gregory Bateson's Ecology of mind. It argues that apparently apolitical focii on lifestyle change and personal development have in some cases given way to overt recognition of the need for global political change. It attributes this to the global political economy of sustainability becoming more evident and critiques of dominant social, political and economic regimes more compelling and widely accepted. Cet article examine une tendance au cours des deux dernières décennies vers une politisation plus explicite dans certains domaines du mouvement écovillage, en particulier lorsque les écovillages s'engagent avec des mouvements de base qui soutiennent le changement environnemental et social. Il le fait en utilisant un cadre d'écologie politique élargi, en s'inspirant également de la «perspective à plusieurs niveaux sur les transitions de durabilité» et de «l'écologie de l'esprit» de Gregory Bateson. Il fait valoir que les priorités apparemment apolitiques sur le changement mode de vie et le développement personnel ont dans certains cas cédé la place à la reconnaissance manifeste de la nécessité d'un changement politique mondial. Il attribue cela à l'économie politique mondiale de la durabilité en devenant plus évident et les critiques des régimes sociaux, politiques et économiques dominants plus convaincantes et largement acceptées. Este artículo examina una tendencia en las últimas dos décadas sobre la explícita politización de ciertas áreas del movimiento de ecoaldeas, particularmente donde las ecoaldeas se involucran con movimientos populares relacionados en favor de un cambio social y ambiental. Para lograrlo, se utiliza un marco expandido de ecología política, una perspectiva de Transiciones a la Sustentabilidad a varios niveles, así como de Ecología de la Mente de Gregory Bateson. El artículo argumenta que los enfoques aparentemente apolíticos de cambio en el estilo de vida y desarrollo personal tienen, en algunos casos, una forma de ganar reconocimiento público en favor de la necesidad de un cambio político global. Esto se atribuye a una economía política global de sustentabilidad cada vez más evidente, así como a las críticas a regímenes social, política y economicamente dominantes que resultan cada vez más persuasivas y ampliamente aceptadas.
Ecological Manifesto: The Next Ten Years
Ecological Manifesto: The Next Ten Years, 2020
Article’s emphasis is placed on the consequences from the rapid development of the economy after the Industrial Revolution. It reveals and discusses the problems related to this process which are causing global warming and are making scientists talk of a new geological era called the Anthropocene. Although not in historical order but in ontological this article is showing the gradual genesis of the ideology of the environmental movement from the middle of 20-th century and the work of few environmentally orientated organizations which are trying to protect the nature. In the #DecadeofAction it is also giving strategies, solutions and precise structure of the most important problems standing before humanity.
Permacultures of transformation: steps to a cultural ecology of environmental action
This article examines a trend over the past two decades towards more explicit politicization in some areas of the ecovillage movement, particularly where ecovillages engage with related grassroots movements for environmental and social change. It does so using an expanded political ecology framework, also drawing upon 'Multi-Level Perspective on Sustainability Transitions' and Gregory Bateson's Ecology of mind. It argues that apparently apolitical focii on lifestyle change and personal development have in some cases given way to overt recognition of the need for global political change. It attributes this to the global political economy of sustainability becoming more evident and critiques of dominant social, political and economic regimes more compelling and widely accepted. Résumé Cet article examine une tendance au cours des deux dernières décennies vers une politisation plus explicite dans certains domaines du mouvement écovillage, en particulier lorsque les écovillages s'engagent avec des mouvements de base qui soutiennent le changement environnemental et social. Il le fait en utilisant un cadre d'écologie politique élargi, en s'inspirant également de la «perspective à plusieurs niveaux sur les transitions de durabilité» et de «l'écologie de l'esprit» de Gregory Bateson. Il fait valoir que les priorités apparemment apolitiques sur le changement mode de vie et le développement personnel ont dans certains cas cédé la place à la reconnaissance manifeste de la nécessité d'un changement politique mondial. Il attribue cela à l'économie politique mondiale de la durabilité en devenant plus évident et les critiques des régimes sociaux, politiques et économiques dominants plus convaincantes et largement acceptées. Resumen Este artículo examina una tendencia en las últimas dos décadas sobre la explícita politización de ciertas áreas del movimiento de ecoaldeas, particularmente donde las ecoaldeas se involucran con movimientos populares relacionados en favor de un cambio social y ambiental. Para lograrlo, se utiliza un marco expandido de ecología política, una perspectiva de Transiciones a la Sustentabilidad a varios niveles, así como de Ecología de la Mente de Gregory Bateson. El artículo argumenta que los enfoques aparentemente apolíticos de cambio en el estilo de vida y desarrollo personal tienen, en algunos casos, una forma de ganar reconocimiento público en favor de la necesidad de un cambio político global. Esto se atribuye a una economía política global de sustentabilidad cada vez más evidente, así como a las críticas a regímenes social, política y economicamente dominantes que resultan cada vez más persuasivas y ampliamente aceptadas.
Journal of Political Ecology -- Special Issue on Alternative and Non-Capitalist Political Ecologies
The articles in this special section, by offering ethnographically grounded reflections on diverse strains of economic activism, begin to articulate a non-capitalocentric political ecology that we think can help scholaractivists politicize, reimagine, and recreate socio-ecological relations. In this introductory article, we offer a useful vision of how scholar-activists can engage with and support more just and sustainable ways of organizing human-human and human-environment relations. Specifically, we argue that engaged researchers can significantly contribute to a meaningful "ecological revolution" by (1) examining the tremendously diverse, already-existing experiments with other ways of being in the world, (2) helping to develop alternative visions, analyses, narratives, and desires that can move people to desire and adopt those ways of being, and (3) actively supporting and constructing economies and ecologies with alternative ethical orientations. Each article in this collection attempts one or more of these goals, and this introductory article provides a conceptual grounding for these ethnographic studies and a synthesis of some of their primary contributions. We begin by describing why critique is analytically and politically inadequate and explain why we think a non-capitalocentric ontology offers an essential complement for engaged scholarship. We then turn to the work of J.K. Gibson-Graham and the Community Economies Collective in order to explain how ideas of overdetermination, diverse economies, and performativity better equip the field of political ecology to contribute to alternative futures. And finally, we discuss how the articles in this volume reconceptualize values, politics, and scale in a manner that illuminates our scholarly and activist efforts.
Birgit Müller (editor) 2022 Political Ecology and Environmental Governance
LASA Forum 53:1, 2022
Political ecology, the encounter between the tradition of Latin American critical thought and the vast experiences and strategies of grassroots communities and Indigenous peoples in the face of plunder and despoliation, questions the established order and the institutions of this order. The study of power relations, crossing the socio-environmental field, has emerged in Latin America as a central interdisciplinary field for thinking about society/environment relations. Latin American critical thinking, which had as a reference a productivist vision of development and modernity, has opened up to the vast plurality of popular movements in search for autonomy and enhancement of rights, and to the unique and constitutive relationship that communities have with their local natures and territories. It implies a critical look at the rationality of state forms and their forms of internal colonialism; primitive accumulation; forms of subordination of the working class around the mining, extraction, and plantation economy; and at the appropriation of agro-biodiversity and ancestral knowledge by the “knowledge society.” How do contestations between knowledge systems and ways of being in the world come together with questions of environmental justice and injustice, class, race, and social costs to future generations when industrial production, infrastructure, and consumption destroy the very basis of urban and rural livelihoods: water, forests, and biodiversity? How does political ecology integrate the challenges posed by the new rivalry in the global economy?