Socio-Ecological Interactions and Sustainable Development—Introduction to a Special Issue

Noelle Aarts and Martin Drenthen
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Noelle Aarts: Socio-Ecological Interactions, Institute for Science in Society (ISiS), Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Martin Drenthen: Environmental Philosophy, Institute for Science in Society (ISiS), Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-6

Abstract: Understanding socio-ecological interactions requires an interdisciplinary approach that recognizes the value of both a social and an ecological perspective. However, such a recognition does not yet automatically result in an integral approach. Many studies of socio-ecological transformations start from either social science or a natural science perspective, and take results from other academic disciplines merely as a given, thus treating these disciplines as black boxes. In this editorial we argue that socio-ecology requires a new paradigm that not only seeks to transcend the separation between social sciences and ecological sciences but also develops a more intimate relationship between these different academic disciplines. We argue that studying socio-ecological interactions is not merely the sum total of social scientific and ecological research, because socio-ecological interactions are not interactions between sociological and ecological systems, but interactions that take place within the socio-ecological whole. Therefore, the study of socio-ecological interactions should start with a new ontology, in which social and ecological aspects are considered different aspects of one and the same reality. The papers in this special issue all show aspects of socio-ecological interactions, but also illustrate the challenge of studying socio-ecological interactions in a comprehensive way.

Keywords: socio-ecological transformations; interdisciplinarity; sustainable development; integral approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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