Notes on an Ecology of Paradigms

The ecology of paradigms conceptualises an alternative perspective on culture. The focus is on practice and understands culture as the paradigmatic reference of a community of practice. This looks at procedures of self‐observation and self‐description as well as on the routines of meaning creation and sense making. The perspective brought forward is radical by focussing primarily on communities of practice. And it is amplified by the modern proliferation of roles carried out and played by the individual calling in this sense for different paradigmatic references. This coexistence of different paradigmatic references holds for the individual as well as for the wider, even global scale. It acknowledges professions next to religions, next to youth and pop culture and next to administrative procedures. Ecology, the science of coexistence allows the synopsis of different cultures on a scale ranging from competition to symbiosis. The clash of civilisations happens at the same time as the coevolution of protestant ethics and capitalism. Based on the concept of ecology of paradigms, we can take a proactive stand and cease to submit reactively to traditions and catechisms. We may start to see possibilities and responsibilities, which come with our practices and their paradigmatic references. And finally, note that evolution correlates with symbiosis and not with competition. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.