Social Ecology as Critical, Transdisciplinary Science—Conceptualizing, Analyzing and Shaping Societal Relations to Nature

Diana Hummel, Thomas Jahn, Florian Keil, Stefan Liehr and Immanuel Stieß
Additional contact information
Diana Hummel: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Thomas Jahn: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Florian Keil: keep it balanced, 10999 Berlin, Germany
Stefan Liehr: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Immanuel Stieß: ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-20

Abstract: The sustainability discourse is, essentially, centered on the question of how complex relations between nature and society can be conceptualized, analyzed and shaped. In this paper, we present a specific interpretation of social ecology as an attempt to address this question. For this purpose, we establish Frankfurt Social Ecology (FSE) as a formal research program, which is based on the concept of societal relations to nature (SRN). The basic idea of the SRN concept is to put the modern distinction between nature and society at the start of a critical analysis. Such an analysis, we argue, has to focus on the interplay between what we call patterns and modes of regulation. Whereas patterns of regulation stand for the material and symbolic aspects of the organization of the individual and societal satisfaction of needs, modes of regulation mirror the norms and power structures of a society. Using an approach that is based on reformulating social-ecological systems as provisioning systems, we show how this interplay can be analyzed empirically. Finally, we propose critical transdisciplinarity as the research mode of choice of FSE. To conclude, we discuss how FSE can contribute to the development of a research program for a sustainable Anthropocene.

Keywords: Anthropocene; critical theory; social-ecological systems; social ecology; societal relations to nature; sustainable development; transdisciplinarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:7:p:1050-:d:102634

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