Deep Ecology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Music Education, Spirituality, Ecological Literacy, Autoethnography
- by Jamie Mcphie and +1
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- Environmental Education, Posthumanism, Poststructuralism, Critical Pedagogy
- by Dan Lindholm
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- Chemistry, Flow Cytometry, Fluorescence Microscopy, Biology

The ecological crisis, understood as a crisis of consciousness and identity, demands a profound change in perspective that can be summoned by reestablishing the natural structure and organization of the human psyche. The first part proposes how the build-up of psychological contents banished to the abyss of repression is a great cause of personal pathology and ecological turmoil. Subsequently, it is proposed that the energy that gives life to the mind's dynamism ought to be released from its anthropocentric, industrial prison and brought to its truer ground amidst the Earth community, if we are to align ourselves to a better future. In this way, psychic energy becomes ecopsychic energy.

- by Adrian Villasenor-Galarza
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- Ecopsychology, Ecology, Deep Ecology, Evolution of Consciousness
- by E. Brown Dewhurst
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- Anarchism, Deep Ecology, Anarchist Theory

Ciclo di seminari con professori, giovani ricercatori e studenti con l'obiettivo di esaminare, tramite l'incrocio transdisciplinare di filosofia, storia della scienza e etnosemiotica, lo statuto teoretico, etico e epistemologico del... more

- by Gianluca De Fazio and +3
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- Gilbert Simondon, Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan, Maurice Merleau-Ponty
- by Bron R Taylor
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- John Muir, Environmental Studies, Environmental Anthropology, Religion and Ecology

The Adis of Arunachal Pradesh consider everything coming from nature as sacred and living. As opposed to the Christian theological teachings that regard humans as the conqueror of everything else on earth, in the Adi worldview, human beings do not occupy the center stage. Instead, the Adis believe in the intrinsic worth of all beings – both human and nonhuman, which exist on earth, as reflected in the Adi philosophy of ‘Donyi-Polo.’This paper attempts to study select poems from Mamang Dai’s book of poems Midsummer Survival Lyrics (2014) in the light of the philosophy of Donyi Polo. It also attempts to link this Adi worldview to the ecosophy of Arne Naess popularly known as ‘Deep Ecology.’

- by Sukla Singha
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- History, Deep Ecology

Reviews recent publication of new edition of Radical Ecopsychology by Andy Fisher, Ph.D., and responds to some of Fisher’s more provocative points concerning the direction of ecopsychology as a field that endeavors to remedy the imbalance between humans and nature. Supports Fisher’s argument that it would be irresponsible to elevate a goal of acceptance of ecopsychology by mainstream psychology over the formative task of ecopsychologists to precipitate the social change that is necessary to avert impending global ecological disaster. Criticizes Fisher for failing to address the advent of social media and its transformative potential in the context of Fisher’s identification of technological progress as the principal culprit in the ecological crisis. Concerning the argument between first- and second-generation ecopsychologists over the proper role of science in advancing our cause, proposes that quantum physics and systems theory is a natural ally to ecopsychology that could lend valuable support to its holistic, naturalistic views. Criticizes Fisher’s most recent advocacy of eco-socialism as a substitute for capitalism as unrealistic, and proposes the alternative of adopting a more transformative approach to capitalism’s excesses, such as those being advanced by organizations like “Share The World’s Resources,” which would constrain capitalism by establishing a global resource commons. Finally, responds to Fisher’s acknowledgment of a viable counter-myth to that of material (not technological) progress and the American Dream by suggesting that a new myth of radical interdependence is already emerging, with “Earth-Rise” as its iconic symbol.

- by Zhiwa Woodbury
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- Ecopsychology, Deep Ecology
- by David Abram
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- Environmental Philosophy, Perception, Ecological Anthropology, Phenomenology
- by Leanne Morrison
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- Marketing, Business Ethics, Discourse Analysis, Sociology

For the climate movement to succeed, we must model the paradigm shift in consciousness that many of us have concluded is a prerequisite to societal change. That means replacing the scientific materialist worldview with a quantum worldview that sees Gaia as not only a living organism, but a sentient being. We can 'prove' Gaia is conscious by considering an integral model of conscious awareness that draws on inter-subjective experience and quantum physics to show that the most complex living organism we have ever beheld cannot logically be other than conscious, for to presume otherwise is anthropocentric. Once we enlist her as our ally, and become active on her behalf instead of our own, then the moral rectitude we embody will become an unstoppable social force.

- by Zhiwa Woodbury
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- Quantum Physics, Indigenous Studies, Climate Change, Ecopsychology
- by John Barry
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- Virtue Ethics, Politics, Environmental Ethics, Deep Ecology

This paper proposes a reﬂection upon the possibilities, interests and values other than those defended by anthropocentrism. Human beings and especially non-‐‑human beings deserve to have their rights and interests respected and guaranteed, and their existence “preserved” beyond the parameters to protect the average male. There is an intensive debate on the acknowledgment of the entitlement of rights and interests of nature and animals. Apart from this there is no doubt that humans and non-‐‑humans are endowed with respect, and do not deserve cruelty, suﬀerance, and degradation. Theories opposed to anthropocentrism put light on nature and animals, and their inherent value as entities and non-‐‑human beings. This paper will tackle an ethical practical position on such diﬀerences.

- by Sandra F . W A G N E R Kiefer and +1
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- Bioethics, Movement Ecology, Deep Ecology, Anthropocentrism

Radical environmental groups throughout the world, militantly committed to defending the ecology, are growing in size and influence. In this country, activists engage in ecological civil disobedience and "ecotage"-- the sabotaging of equipment to prevent ecological damage-- in the struggle to preserve wilderness lands. These ecoteurs have gone beyond traditional conservation concerns to a new philosophy-- Deep Ecology, or biocentrism-- that calls into question not only the wisdom, but the legitimacy of humanity's domination of nature. In "Green Rage", Christopher Manes has written a brilliant defense of radical environmentalism, challenging the ethics of modern industrial society and asserting the right of the natural world to blossom, evolve, and exist for its own sake.

- by Christopher Manes
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- Deep Ecology, Anthropocentrism, Radical Environmentalism, Biocentrism

In the paper, I argue that deep ecologists did not take full advantage of the potential of Martin Heidegger’s philosophy to support the foundational assumptions of deep ecology. They have overlooked Heidegger’s attempt to reject the idea of the great chain of being (reinforcing his critique of metaphysics as “ontotheology”), which is essential for the concept of ecospherical egalitarianism. In considering the notion of “ecospherical egalitarianism,” I shall recognize Heidegger’s ontology as an “ontological egalitarianism.” Finally, I will show that Heidegger’s project seems to be even more universal than deep ecology since Heidegger is concerned with artifacts as well as natural entities.

- by Magdalena Holy-Luczaj
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- Martin Heidegger, Deep Ecology, Heidegger

This essay published in Permaculture Magazine considers the potential of creating an ecosystem restoration cooperative and ecosystem restoration camps to engage the largest numbers of people around the world in mitigation and adaptation... more

- by John D. Liu
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- History, Sociology, Future Studies, Geography

O progressivo avanço da crise socioecológica torna cada vez mais premente a necessidade de literalmente pararmos para pensar sobre o tipo de civilização em que estamos vivendo e quais os seus rumos possíveis. Há quase sessenta anos a Filosofia Ambiental tem se dedicado a esta tarefa, examinando criticamente as diferentes relações que vamos estabelecendo com a natureza mais que humana. Ao lado da ecologia política, os primeiros passos da filosofia ambiental se deram a partir de um esforço de articulação e avaliação das ideias e ações do movimento ecologista entre as décadas de 1960 e 70. Um olhar mais acurado sobre a peculiaridade deste contexto histórico nos permite reconhecer a nascente filosofia ambiental na confluência entre: i) o alerta ecológico disparado pela repercussão de obras como Primavera Silenciosa (CARSON, 1962); ii) a inclusão definitiva da temática do meio ambiente na política internacional através da Conferência de Estocolmo (1972); iii) um reavivamento dos ideais preservacionistas norte-americanos promovido pela contracultura. O presente artigo pretende esboçar uma genealogia deste prolífico campo de estudos ainda pouco explorado no Brasil.

- by Dante Targa
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- Deep Ecology, Ecophilosophy, Filosofía Ambiental
- by Michael Arfken
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- Marxism, Environmental Psychology, Ecopsychology, Ecofeminism
- by David Macauley
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- Aesthetics, Environmental Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, Everyday Aesthetics

Joanna Macy's " Work that Reconnects " (WTR) is a transformative learning process that endeavors to help participants acknowledge, experience, and understand the emotions that may either empower or inhibit action to address the ecological crisis. The WTR seeks to work through grief, fear, and despair to animate a sense of active, empowering hope rooted in gratitude, compassion, imagination, community, and collective action. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from neuroscience, ecopsychology, and transformative learning, this paper analyzes how emotions may either impede or facilitate active engagement in ecological issues. The assumptions, goals, and process of the WTR are then presented in light of these insights. Finally, a case study involving the use of the WTR with young adults along with their reflections on the experience are considered to illustrate how the process may be employed as well as to analyze some of the benefits, challenges, and limitations of using this transformative learning process.

- by Mark Hathaway
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- Environmental Education, Adult Education, Transformative Learning, Ecopsychology

Rivers are alive. Indigenous peoples worldwide recognise the spiritual presence of rivers and derive their being from them. Western neo-liberalism threatens indigenous peoples, their lands and their rivers, but resistance is becoming more successful, as with the granting of personhood to the river Whanganui in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2017. In the so-called developed world, we have seemingly abandoned our indigeneity, losing our collective soul just as we colonized and imposed on the rest of the world our presumption of dominion over the Earth. But our rivers are still alive, even if canalized, polluted, buried or dammed, and still sacred. Can we decolonize and re-indigenize ourselves, and re-establish a respectful, responsible relationship with our river kin?

- by Chris Wood
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- Landscape Ecology, Human Ecology, Anthropology, Mythology

As Marina Warner observes in her introduction to its 2004 Vintage Classics edition, Coleridge’s life-long obsession with themes of enchantment comes to one of its fullest expressions in his 1798 poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In this paper I consider how that theme of enchantment has been interpreted by two of The Rime’s later adaptations, both of them childrens’ books: C.S. Lewis’ 1952 The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Ted Hughes 1993 The Iron Woman. My discussion of these three stories, and of the mutating theme of enchantment that runs through them, relies heavily on Hughes’ 1993 essay The Snake in the Oak, in which he offers an empathic critical interpretation of the spiritual crisis that both cut off, and was eloquently mapped within, Coleridge’s 'three great poems'. For Hughes, The Rime’s hallucinatory enchantment is seen as a necessary and curative descent - a visionary encounter which briefly prises loose the dead grip of the protagonist’s – and the author’s – human centred worldview. The mode of enchantment that Hughes presents us with, here, is far from the solipsistic lapse into self-suggestion caricatured in C.S. Lewis’ sermon. Rather, it’s that universally recorded process of involuntary descent which characterises a shamanic calling.

- by Mat R K Osmond
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- Deep Ecology, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Childrens Literature, Ecospirituality

Partiendo del paradigma antropológico y mitológico compartido por Carl Gustav Jung, Joseph Campbell y Mircea Eliade, José Antonio Delgado relaciona las estructuras míticas y sus mecanismos con el alma humana y sus productos, permitiendo que el lector comprenda de qué modo se expresa en el cine la imaginación y cómo se vehiculan los arquetipos o patrones de comportamiento humano a través de la gran pantalla. Además, las innovadoras relaciones entre los presupuestos que comparten la psicología profunda, la psicología transpersonal, la ecología profunda, el misticismo y la física cuántica redunda en una mejor comprensión del nuevo paradigma espiritual que está emergiendo en Occidente.

- by José Delgado González
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- History of Religion, Jungian psychology, Deep Ecology, Cinema Studies

Environmental education (EE) and education for sustainable development (ESD) researchers and practitioners offer a well-founded critique of authoritarian tendencies and the threat of student indoctrination into neoliberalist values. Neoliberalism advocates economic growth through open markets and tends to ignore sustainability imperatives. Some researchers are also wary of any type of advocacy in education for the fear of indoctrination, warning against using education as a tool for behavioral change, regulated according to predetermined guidelines. This article supports the critics’ caution against neoliberalism, which privileges economic development and tends to ignore other concerns. This article addresses the question of how could educators create meaningful EE/ESD programs within or as an alternative to neoliberalism and discuss larger societal implications of transition to more progressive models. It is proposed that educational practice can be more effectively utilized in order to address unsustainable practices, by engaging with the most effective modes of sustainability and particularly important, critically reflecting upon realistic possibilities of decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation. It will be argued that we need a more focused EE/ESD that takes as its basis our common future on the planet of finite resources that necessarily need to engage more ‘radical’ perspectives.

- by Helen Kopnina
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- Education, Environmental Education, Higher Education, Environmental Studies

Drawing on Ernst Bloch’s writings on utopia, Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopia, and the ‘affective turn’ in social theory, I argue that cinema is by its nature heterotopic: it creates worlds that are other than the ‘real world’ but that relate to that world in multiple and contradictory ways. The landscapes and people portrayed in ﬁlm are affectively charged in ways that alter viewers’ relationship to the real objects denoted or signiﬁed by them. But it is the larger context of social and cultural movements that mobilizes or fails to mobilize this affective charge to draw out its critical utopian potentials. I examine four ﬁlms from the 1970s—Deliverance, The Wicker Man, Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000, and Stalker—as examples of richly heterotopic ﬁlms that elicited utopian as well as dystopian affects in their audiences, and I discuss some ways in which American environmentalists, British Pagans, Europe’s ‘generation of ’68’, and Soviet citizens worked with these affects to imagine change in their respective societies.

- by Adrian Ivakhiv
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- Film Studies, Heterotopia, Utopian Studies, Deep Ecology

Highlighting the ecological concerns as projected in Disney Pictures is the prime objective of the paper. The two major ground breaking theoretical concepts Deep ecology and Ecofeminism though are against the institutionalized hierarchies, are found to dilute each other. The Frozen series of Disney Pictures has deviated from the clichéd portrayal of its princess's and has placed an open gate before the pro-feminist princess. Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism together create a deep impact on the role played by women in restoring nature to its pristine form from being exploited by the materialist society. Archetypal criticism clears the mist enabling women to know the reason behind their instinctual tendency to nurture nature. Both the concepts complement each other and create a divine approach towards nature. Frozen series has created a deep impact on every individual of the society irrespective of their age and gender. The paper supports the theory of coexistence propounded by the Frozen series with theoretical evidences pooled together from different episteme of knowledge like Psychology, Feminism and Ecology. The environmental ethics displayed by mass media to the younger generations has been a phenomenal victory. The Western civilization has steered the wheel of development towards ecological balance and has proved the fact that natural resources once exploited will bring doom's day to the doorsteps of all the creations existing on this earth. The ecological concepts dealt with in the movies have struck the chord-by explicating complicated ecological theories along with solutions for the ecological crisis through a feminist lens.

- by Thamizhini N
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- Ecofeminism, Women & Film, Deep Ecology, Mutualism
- by Savas Volkan
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- Philosophy, Animal Ethics, Ecology, Deep Ecology

The award winning Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature critically explores the relationships among human beings, their environments, and the religious dimensions of life. Further information and sample entries can be found at the urls... more

- by Keith R Peterson
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- Environmental Philosophy, Environmental Ethics, Deep Ecology

This paper is a preliminary report on the results of an informal survey tentatively exploring the connections between the practice of Permaculture and extraordinary experiences. It will introduce Permaculture, give an overview of the questions posed in the survey, examine some of the responses received and speculate on possible frameworks for understanding the connection. It is intended to be an exploratory study and to encourage further research into the connections between extraordinary experience and practical ecology.

- by Jack Hunter
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- Spirituality, Altered States of Consciousness, Agroforestry, Paranormal

The large-scale ecological damage caused by growth societies calls for economic degrowth in terms of a radical decrease in matter/energy throughput. This article examines the role of modern technology in degrowth with a focus on the question of agency and its ethical implications. After conceptualising technology as practice, the paper finds that while technological practice encompasses an agency for social change, it is restricted to transforming the non-human world to human-made objects. This is because in technological practice the world and its objects unfold as a standing-reserve for human use. Due to this calculative and anthropocentric thinking, technological practice does not and cannot support the emergence of a kind of agency that either does or can let things be. Moreover, the more technological the practice, the more objects are utilised. The paper concludes that technological practice does not support the transition to degrowth, because it directs its agents towards the continuous transformation of non-human-made objects into human-made objects resulting in an increase in cumulative throughput. The paper thus suggests that an ethos of releasement is needed to attain, as well as to live in, a degrowth society. The rationale provided for refraining from the technological practice in order to contribute to ecologically sensible social change is the chief contribution of this paper.

- by Pasi Heikkurinen
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- Environmental Sociology, Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Technology
- by John Clark
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- Social Theory, Philosophy, Environmental Philosophy, History of Thought

In the 1970s, deep ecologists developed a radical normative argument for ‘ecological consciousness’ to challenge environmental and human exploitation. Such consciousness would replace the Enlightenment dualist ‘illusion’ with a post-Enlightenment holism that ‘fully integrated’ humanity within the ecosphere. By the 2000s, deep ecology had fallen out of favour with many green scholars. And, in 2014, it was described as a ‘spent force’. However, this decline has coincided with calls by influential advocates of ‘corporate social and environmental responsibility’ (CSER) and ‘green growth’ (GG) that urge market actors to ensure voluntarily that social and environmental ‘problems are addressed holistically’. Given that CSER and GG have also been associated with rent seeking, privatisation and reducing incomes of the poor, could it be that the deep ecologists’ once radical ideas today serve to legitimate forms of exploitation that they once decried? A critical realist perspective can problematise deep ecology’s highly normative response to exploitation and alienation. By settling ontological questions in favour of holism and promoting moral voluntarism, deep ecology failed to address how actors with different interests might adopt green ideas. This blind spot can be cured by focussing instead on the active deployment of ethics, morality, values, beliefs, ideas, and knowledges by political actors in historically specific contexts. Both critical normative and critical realist modes of engaging with environmental values are important; however, at a time when holism and voluntarism are gaining influence, critical realism offers helpful insight into the uses and abuses of such values.

If it is the role of the humanities is to interpret the expressions of human experience over time, what exactly can Shakespeare offer in response to critical environmental concerns? How can an ecological reading of Shakespeare serve to inform humanity’s role in the health of ecological systems? This paper presents an ecological reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, bridging allegorical interpretation with the principles of deep ecology, a philosophy founded by mountaineer Arne Naess. Specific to the philosophy are concepts which promote wider identification with nature. Deep ecology is predicated on the idea that non-human living beings have an equal right to live as humans. My discussion elucidates the connection between deep ecology and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, beginning with its fundamental precepts, moving into the ecological history of Elizabethan England, and finally into an allegorical interpretation of Jack Bottom and Puck, the intermediaries between nature and social order.

- by Swetlana Nasrawi Schmidt
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- Shakespeare, Liminality, Ecology, Deep Ecology

This pandemic is more than certainly - together with the giant fires in California and Australia, the staggering melting of the Arctic and West Antarctic ice caps, the destruction of the Amazonian forest, etc. - one of the warning signs of a potential dislocation of our world to materialist and capitalist practices (B. Latour). This state of affairs does not require recourse to the sometimes anxiety-provoking statements of collapsology (P. Servigne, R. Stevens, etc.) or even to others that are more reasonable but no less frightening (IPCC, D. Bourg). The emergence of this pandemic is not an isolated singular fact but an emerging phenomenon linked to a global systemic dynamic where multiple factors act in an infinite number of interactions. This pandemic, as it presents itself, is undoubtedly specific to the anthropocene era. The economic, productive and institutional worlds, as we know, have not recognised the gravity of the situation for obvious reasons. However, the President of the Republic, E. Macron, himself, in his last public speech, seems to think that our models must be replaced by others. The old reductionist and productivist paradigm for systematic growth must be replaced by that of a search for a balance between human ecumene and living environments (A. Berque, P. Descola). In his latest paper on BFM, N. Hulot, does not say otherwise.

- by Patrice / Patrizio Ceccarini-Cappuccini
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- Architecture, Science Education, Ecology, Deep Ecology

This article will discuss social, environmental, and ecological justice in education for sustainable development (ESD) and Education for Sustainable Development Goals (ESDG). The concept of sustainable development and, by extension, the ESD, places heavy emphasis on the economic and social aspects of sustainability. However, the ESD falls short of recognizing ecological justice, or recognition that nonhumans also have a right to exist and flourish. An intervention in the form of an undergraduate course titled Politics, Business, and Environment (PBE) will be discussed. As part of this course, students were asked to reflect on the three pillars of sustainable development: society, economy, and environment, linking these to the fourth concept, ecological justice or biospheric egalitarianism. Biospheric egalitarianism is characterized by the recognition of intrinsic value in the environment and is defined as concern about justice for the environment. Some of the resulting exam answers are analyzed, demonstrating students’ ability to recognize the moral and pragmatic limitations of the anthropocentric approach to justice. This analysis presents ways forward in thinking about the role of “ecological justice” as the ultimate bottom line upon which both society and economy are based.

- by Helen Kopnina
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- Education, Environmental Education, Higher Education, Sustainable Development
- by Matteo Andreozzi
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- Biology, Deep Ecology, Biocentrism, Charles Darwin
- by John Clark
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- Philosophy, Environmental Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Political Ecology

Thomas Hobbes was one of the first modern political philosophers, and his approach to politics is still influential. Hobbes’s philosophy is humanistic, and I examine how the natural world is treated in Hobbes’s Leviathan (1946). While Hobbes may seem to be the antithesis to animal rights and environmentalism, I argue that this view is unfounded. Hobbes describes man and animal as fundamentally equal, and this equality is more important than Hobbes makes it. If we acknowledge the natural rights of animals, we could imagine a social contract in which animals are parties to the contract, represented by curators or guardians. This approach has some limitations, and I argue that exploring “environmentalism as self-interest” is more promising. I show how Hobbes prepares the argument for long-term perspectives, introduce some elementary evidence of the dangers of environmentally unsound policies, and then develop a Hobbesian argument for environmentalism.

- by Henrik S Sætra
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- Political Theory, Social Contract Theory, Environmental Ethics, Thomas Hobbes
- by John Barry
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- Marxist Economics, Marxism and Ecology, Social Justice, Deep Ecology
- by Arzu Maltaş Erol
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- Ecology, Ecofeminism, Deep Ecology, Social Ecology