WTF is Social Ecology?

WTF Is Social Ecology?

From climate change, to deforestation, to destruction of biodiversity and habitats, to ocean acidification, to air, water and soil pollution, and beyond: the world is undergoing a colossal ecological crisis. If business as usual continues without sufficient opposition and alternatives, there will be escalating disasters. However, there are real possibilities to change how we relate to each other politically, economically, and socially– and by extension change how we relate to the broader ecological world we are part of. The odds may be against us, but spirals of organization and collective action can change the odds and change the world.

Ecology is the study of living organisms and their relationships to each other and their environments. Social Ecology is a framework for thinking about social and ecological processes and taking action to change the world. Social Ecology sees nature as relational and developmental. Social Ecology proposes developmental reasoning to trace social and ecological relations, processes, and possibilities. From the above, we can find what should be in relationship to social and ecological flourishing. Social Ecology was founded by philosopher Murray Bookchin in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Social Ecology is a living set of ideas that strives to continually combine the best of philosophy with the best of natural and social sciences.

Society is part of and evolved out of the natural world. By being political, economic, and social animals, with conceptual language, and technology: humans have immense potential to create and to destroy. Depending on how we relate to each other, we can play mutualistic and creative roles towards social and ecological flourishing or we can create death spirals leading to social and ecological destruction.

Social Ecology claims our major ecological problems are rooted in social problems– specifically problems of social hierarchy as well as capitalism in particular. This social definition of hierarchy refers to institutionalized domination where rulers command and the ruled obey. Contrary to anti-human myths, the ecological crisis is not caused by an excess of human freedom; it is instead caused by the destruction of social freedom that happens through domination and exploitation towards goals of profit and power-over others.

Capitalism is based on commodity production for markets, wage labor (and other exploited labor!), class relations, and class-property to competitively acquire private profit. Capitalism puts profit above social and ecological needs. Capitalism turns human labor and the ecological world more broadly into instruments and commodities to be exploited, destroyed, bought, and sold in competitive games to see who gets what and who rules who. In the process of competitively trying to increase profit, and exploiting and dominating labor in the process, ecosystems are sacrificed accordingly. Within capitalism, businesses that do not exploit labor and extract as much are at competitive disadvantages compared to competitors exploiting and extracting more.

States are hierarchical forms of politics with related monopolies on the use of violence within the territories they govern. States also have anti-social and anti-ecological imperatives. States can only exist through developing power-over others. Competing and cooperating states exist through increasing their abilities to use violence against those they rule over, external populations, and competing forces at the expense of social and ecological flourishing. The militarism of states eats social and ecological worlds. Additionally, states exploit the populations they conquer and rule over for resources and labor.

Contemporary states also enforce capitalism and by extension enforce ecological destruction caused by capitalism and are not separable from it. Capitalism has been legalized, enforced, and expanded through states. As part of the capitalist world system, colonialism and continuous enclosures of commons create new commodities and markets while forcing people into poverty, wage labor, and other exploited labor. Capitalist and state systems are entangled with various patriarchal, racist, imperial, colonial, and nationalist relations that function in and through such capitalist and state systems– creating populations that are hyper-exploited and hyper-dominated as well as forced to be on the frontlines of ecological disasters.

Hierarchical institutions and social relations co-create each other and exist in particular and changing ways. Hierarchies destroy and inhibit self-management and related commons. By extension, hierarchies are at the expense of the kinds of social relations necessary for social and ecological flourishing. If some hierarchies are abolished while others continue without sufficient opposition, then institutionalized domination will continue along with its anti-social and anti-ecological results.

Towards An Ecological Society:

Contrary to social hierarchy, social freedom would be self-management of communities, collectives, and individuals on every scale to act and develop without dominating each other. There is a grand history of freedom outside, alongside, and against the history of hierarchy. Out of social and ecological history, we can better understand possibilities and causes for mutual-aid, self-organization, freedom, unity in diversity, and nonhierarchical relationships. Such features are principles for both social and ecological flourishing.

Community self-management and related common resources are extensions of social freedom and meeting needs of all. Social Ecology proposes self-managed community assemblies that utilize dialogue, direct-collective-decision making, collective action, mutual-aid, and shared-common-resources to meet needs and solve social problems. Resources communities need would be held in common and resources individuals need would be given according to needs. Through non-hierarchical, participatory, and direct democracy: policies would be made by community assemblies and administration would be carried-out by mandated and recallable councils of such assemblies. Community assemblies would form inter-community associations with each other for making decisions, co-managing common resources, and mutual-aid between communities in such a way where all policy making power is held by assemblies and participants directly. Community assemblies would strive towards an ecological abundance where there is wellbeing for all in harmony with and mutualistically contributing to ecosystems they are part of and related to. Social Ecology proposes a vision where the above replaces competitively increasing profit and power-over others through domination, exploitation, commodification, and ecological destruction.

To get from here to utopia, Social Ecology proposes developing self-managed community assemblies that work on meeting short term, mid-term and long-term needs/goals. This would be done through developing common-resources, mutual-aid projects, and direct action against domination, exploitation, and ecological destruction. Associations of self-managed communities can become both alternative-powers and counter-powers against class-relations and hierarchy more broadly. Strategically applied spirals of organizations and actions, within and between community assemblies and other kinds of social movement organizations, can overtime develop popular will and capacity to overthrow hierarchical rule and create a free and ecological society. This general approach proposed by Social Ecology would be adapted to needs, conditions, and desires of participants.

“Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations, scientific knowledge, and innate creativity for its own benefit and for that of the natural world, all ecological problems will have their roots in social problems.” -Bookchin

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For further reading on Social Ecology:

Remaking Society by Murray Bookchin https://libcom.org/article/remaking-society-pathways-green-future

Ecology of Freedom by Murray Bookchin https://libcom.org/article/ecology-freedom-emergence-and-dissolution-hierarchy-murray-bookchin

Philosophy of Social Ecology by Murray Bookchin https://files.libcom.org/files/ThePhilosophyofSocialEcology.pdf

Post Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin https://files.libcom.org/files/Post-Scarcity%20Anarchism%20-%20Murray%20Bookchin.pdf

Ecology of Everyday Life by Chaia Heller https://libcom.org/article/ecology-everyday-life