IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i7p1050-d102634.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Diana Hummel

    (ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
    Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, 60325 Frankfurt/Main, Germany)

  • Thomas Jahn

    (ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
    Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, 60325 Frankfurt/Main, Germany)

  • Florian Keil

    (keep it balanced, 10999 Berlin, Germany)

  • Stefan Liehr

    (ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
    Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, 60325 Frankfurt/Main, Germany)

  • Immanuel Stieß

    (ISOE—Institute for Social-Ecological Research, 60486 Frankfurt/Main, Germany)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Diana Hummel & Thomas Jahn & Florian Keil & Stefan Liehr & Immanuel Stieß, 2017. "Social Ecology as Critical, Transdisciplinary Science—Conceptualizing, Analyzing and Shaping Societal Relations to Nature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:7:p:1050-:d:102634
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1050/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/7/1050/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Måns Nilsson & Dave Griggs & Martin Visbeck, 2016. "Policy: Map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals," Nature, Nature, vol. 534(7607), pages 320-322, June.
    2. Jahn, Thomas & Bergmann, Matthias & Keil, Florian, 2012. "Transdisciplinarity: Between mainstreaming and marginalization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-10.
    3. Davide Nicolini & Jeanne Mengis & Jacky Swan, 2012. "Understanding the Role of Objects in Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 612-629, June.
    4. Ulrich Brand & Markus Wissen, 2013. "Crisis and continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships: The imperial mode of living and the limits to environmental governance," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 687-711, August.
    5. David Griggs & Mark Stafford-Smith & Owen Gaffney & Johan Rockström & Marcus C. Öhman & Priya Shyamsundar & Will Steffen & Gisbert Glaser & Norichika Kanie & Ian Noble, 2013. "Sustainable development goals for people and planet," Nature, Nature, vol. 495(7441), pages 305-307, March.
    6. Biesecker, Adelheid & Hofmeister, Sabine, 2010. "Focus: (Re)productivity: Sustainable relations both between society and nature and between the genders," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1703-1711, June.
    7. Bertrand Zuindeau, 2007. "Régulation School and environment: Theoretical proposals and avenues of research," Post-Print halshs-00200674, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Liehr & Julia Röhrig & Marion Mehring & Thomas Kluge, 2017. "How the Social-Ecological Systems Concept Can Guide Transdisciplinary Research and Implementation: Addressing Water Challenges in Central Northern Namibia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Shakya, Bandana & Uddin, Kabir & Yi, Shaoliang & Bhatta, Laxmi Dutt & Lodhi, Mahendra Singh & Htun, Naing Zaw & Yang, Yongping, 2021. "Mapping of the ecosystem services flow from three protected areas in the far-eastern Himalayan Landscape: An impetus to regional cooperation," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    3. Plank, Christina & Liehr, Stefan & Hummel, Diana & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Haberl, Helmut & Görg, Christoph, 2021. "Doing more with less: Provisioning systems and the transformation of the stock-flow-service nexus," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    4. Brinkmann, Katja & Kübler, Daniel & Liehr, Stefan & Buerkert, Andreas, 2021. "Agent-based modelling of the social-ecological nature of poverty traps in southwestern Madagascar," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    5. Jacqueline Loos & Henrik Von Wehrden, 2018. "Beyond Biodiversity Conservation: Land Sharing Constitutes Sustainable Agriculture in European Cultural Landscapes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-11, May.
    6. Christoph Görg & Ulrich Brand & Helmut Haberl & Diana Hummel & Thomas Jahn & Stefan Liehr, 2017. "Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-21, June.
    7. Marion Mehring & Uwe Zajonz & Diana Hummel, 2017. "Social-Ecological Dynamics of Ecosystem Services: Livelihoods and the Functional Relation between Ecosystem Service Supply and Demand—Evidence from Socotra Archipelago, Yemen and the Sahel Region, Wes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Zeug, Walther & Bezama, Alberto & Thrän, Daniela, 2020. "Towards a holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of the bioeconomy: Background on concepts, visions and measurements," UFZ Discussion Papers 7/2020, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    9. Beate Friedrich, 2019. "Pathways of Conflict: Lessons from the Cultivation of MON810 in Germany in 2005–2008 for Emerging Conflicts over New Breeding Techniques," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, December.
    10. David Horan, 2019. "A New Approach to Partnerships for SDG Transformations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-22, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zeug, Walther & Bezama, Alberto & Thrän, Daniela, 2020. "Towards a holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of the bioeconomy: Background on concepts, visions and measurements," UFZ Discussion Papers 7/2020, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    2. Gyula Dörgő & Viktor Sebestyén & János Abonyi, 2018. "Evaluating the Interconnectedness of the Sustainable Development Goals Based on the Causality Analysis of Sustainability Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-26, October.
    3. Myriam Pham‐Truffert & Florence Metz & Manuel Fischer & Henri Rueff & Peter Messerli, 2020. "Interactions among Sustainable Development Goals: Knowledge for identifying multipliers and virtuous cycles," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1236-1250, September.
    4. Lena Partzsch, 2023. "Missing the SDGs: Political accountability for insufficient environmental action," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(3), pages 438-450, June.
    5. Keith R. Skene, 2021. "No goal is an island: the implications of systems theory for the Sustainable Development Goals," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 9993-10012, July.
    6. Johanna Kramm & Melanie Pichler & Anke Schaffartzik & Martin Zimmermann, 2017. "Societal Relations to Nature in Times of Crisis—Social Ecology’s Contributions to Interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-12, June.
    7. Christoph Görg & Ulrich Brand & Helmut Haberl & Diana Hummel & Thomas Jahn & Stefan Liehr, 2017. "Challenges for Social-Ecological Transformations: Contributions from Social and Political Ecology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-21, June.
    8. Jan Anton van Zanten & Rob van Tulder, 2021. "Improving companies' impacts on sustainable development: A nexus approach to the SDGS," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3703-3720, December.
    9. Bogdan Ștefanachi & Silviu-Petru Grecu & Horia Costin Chiriac, 2022. "Mapping Sustainability across the World: Signs, Challenges and Opportunities for Democratic Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-28, May.
    10. Odirilwe Selomane & Belinda Reyers & Reinette Biggs & Maike Hamann, 2019. "Harnessing Insights from Social-Ecological Systems Research for Monitoring Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-36, February.
    11. Boglárka Németh & Károly Németh & Jon N. Procter, 2021. "Informed Geoheritage Conservation: Determinant Analysis Based on Bibliometric and Sustainability Indicators Using Ordination Techniques," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-31, May.
    12. Seong-Kyu Kim & Jun-Ho Huh, 2020. "Blockchain of Carbon Trading for UN Sustainable Development Goals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-32, May.
    13. Antonio Sianes, 2021. "Academic Research on the 2030 Agenda: Challenges of a Transdisciplinary Field of Study," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(3), pages 286-297, May.
    14. Ting Guan & Qian Zhang, 2023. "Value Orientations, Personal Norms, and Public Attitude toward SDGs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-19, February.
    15. Oana Forestier & Rakhyun E. Kim, 2020. "Cherry‐picking the Sustainable Development Goals: Goal prioritization by national governments and implications for global governance," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1269-1278, September.
    16. Ioannis Fasoulis & Rafet Emek Kurt, 2019. "Embracing Sustainability in Shipping: Assessing Industry’s Adaptations Incited by the, Newly, Introduced ‘ triple bottom line ’ Approach to Sustainable Maritime Development," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-20, July.
    17. Matteo Pedercini & Steve Arquitt & Derek Chan, 2020. "Integrated simulation for the 2030 agenda†," System Dynamics Review, System Dynamics Society, vol. 36(3), pages 333-357, July.
    18. Md. Sujahangir Kabir Sarkar & Mahesti Okitasari & Md. Rajibul Ahsan & Abul Quasem Al-Amin, 2022. "Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Bangladesh: An Inclusive Framework under Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-19, August.
    19. Cahen-Fourot, Louison, 2020. "Contemporary capitalisms and their social relation to the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    20. Prema Nedungadi & Kai-Yu Tang & Raghu Raman, 2024. "The Transformative Power of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-27, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:7:p:1050-:d:102634. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.