The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy (Athabasca University)
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What is Living in Deep Ecology?
Get PDFThis article asks what in deep ecology has the most enduring value, what escapes typical forms of negative criticism, what contributes most to the development of ecological thought, and what shows the most promise of transforming the larger society into an ecological one. Such exemplary qualities are discovered in Gary Snyder’s reflections on the wild and the sacred, Arne’s Naess’s inquiry into the meaning of “free nature,” Thomas Berry’s depiction of the place of humanity in the Earth Story and the Universe Story, and Delores LaChapelle’s exploration of the ethos and spirituality of place. It is found that a focus on such dimensions of deep ecological thought can reveal points of interconnection between what have been called “radical ecologies,” and help guide us in the direction of the deep logos of the oikos
Darwinian Ethology and Naess’ Principles of Deep Ecology
Get PDFThe links between Darwinian theory and deep ecology seem, on face value, to be rather remote. Even though certain aspects of traditional interpretations of Darwinian theory can be correlated with the theoretical principles of deep ecology, it is necessary, in order to make stronger links apparent, to concentrate on a rarely addressed domain of Darwin’s thought, i.e. the study of animal behaviour. Darwinian ethology, based on principles that limit the importance of natural selection, is methodologically compatible with both theoretical and normative principles of deep ecology as defined by Naess. This article provides a definition of Darwinian ethology and explains its methodological compatibility with Naess’ principles of deep ecology
Hove To: Missing the Storm in the Lee of Life
Get PDFWe live in a time when, increasingly, we don’t have to face the wider world. As an educator in Newfoundland I have been dismayed to find that time in seats has become synonymous with learning. Worse still, when young people do have time to themselves they rarely trudge into the admittedly fickle moods of Newfoundland’s weather. Lost then is an intimate feel and connection to place, as well as the skills to negotiate and find safe passage through the worst of weather’s onslaught. These were once skills that were important. In order to counter Barry Lopez’s quote that our communities and places are at best “selectively known” we must make Nature our teacher. Even when it requires full weather-gear to make it to ‘class’
Ecosophy at the End of Nature
Get PDFNaess’s ecosophy is one of the first and most influential philosophical formulations of relationism and environmental ontology. In this paper, I argue that his proposal can be re-analysed in light of Latour’s recent political ecology. The comparison unfolds through Latour’s direct criticisms of Naess in the central concepts of objectivity, politics, anthropcentrism, ecological crisis, morality, facts and values. On one hand, the comparison offers material to rework the potentials and pitfalls of a perspective that understands the ecological crisis in terms of necessity to reopen the concept of nature and of the human. On the other hand, Latour exposes some of Naess’s fundamental ambiguities. I argue that precisely in these ambiguities lies Naess’s fecundity and, maybe, the possibility for ecosophy to rephrase its tenets today
Panarchy, Transformation, and Place: Exploring Social Change and Resiliency Through an Ecological Lens
Get PDFThis paper uses panarchy theory, a complexity theory used in environmental management, to describe transformation in social systems. To introduce the concept of panarchy, the authors reflect on the naming of their new son and the changes that their choice of name caused in their family. They then bridge this analogy into Author 1's, (first name) preliminary dissertation research findings that invited exemplary Canadians to revisit their childhood and adolescent transformative place. Using video ethnography and participatory action research, these interviews should be simultaneously viewed when reading this article at http://www.transformativeplaces.com/. The five components of panarchy, scale, time, holarchy, cycles, and cross-scale dependency are demonstrated by the interviewees' connection to their transformative outdoor childhood or adolescent place. Observing systems and the change that arises from 'release' events supports human and social resiliency. The terminology used in panarchy theory provides an ecological approach to describing social systems and their transformation
Deep Ecology, the Radical Enlightenment, and Ecological Civilization
Get PDFWith the early success of the deep ecology movement in attracting adherents and with the increasing threat of a global ecological catastrophe, one would have expected this movement to have triumphed. We should be in the process of radically transforming society to create a harmonious relationship between humans and the rest of nature. Instead, deep ecology has been marginalized. What has triumphed instead is an alliance of managerialism, transnational corporations and neo-liberalism committed to replacing communities with markets and transforming every facet of nature and society into means for increasing profitability and GDP. This outcome is explained here by the failure of deep ecologists to understand the ideological, political and economic forces driving ecological destruction, and thereby what is required to overcome these. To regain the initiative, it is argued, it will be necessary to recover the whole project of the Radical Enlightenment upholding the Renaissance quest for liberty that was subverted by the scientific materialism and possessive individualism of the Moderate Enlightenment. Not only will it be necessary to transform science to develop a comprehensive alternative conception of nature and humanity and its destiny, it will be necessary to revive and develop the institutions of the Radical Enlightenment to subordinate markets to democratically organized communities at multiple levels, as communities of communities committed to augmenting the life of these communities, including the life of ecological communities. Doing so will involve reformulating the grand narrative of emancipation as a dialogic, polyphonic grand narrative to orient individuals, organizations and nations to create a global ecological civilization
