Sociology and Human Ecology

John A. Smith is a Principal Lecturer and Research Lead in the Department of Education & Community Studies at the University of Greenwich, UKChris Jenks is a Sociologist, and has previously occupied the positions of Vice Chancellor and Principal of Brunel University London; and Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College University of London, UK

• IntroductionChapter 1. Ontology from the perspective of complexity theory: auto-eco-organisationAttention and ignoranceThe dual character of ignorance: the standpoint of irony The dual character of ignorance: pragmatismThe plurality of ignorance and ‘complexity’Prigogine and systems far-from equilibriumMorin: restricted and general complexityKauffmann and ‘the next adjacent possible’Per Bak: Self-Organised CriticalityConclusions and implications.Post-script and transition: an informational turnChapter 2 The strengths and limitations of the concept of social constructionMarxism(s) and the EconomyDurkheim, organic solidarity and sui generic social phenomena.The Normal & the PathologicalWeber, authority and power.Weber and the Protestant EthicFoucault and post-structuralismReconciling Critical Realism and Social ConstructionThe Saussurean legacyConclusions and implicationsChapter 3. The ontological status of the living: a renewed foundation for epistemology and representationHoffmeyer and semiotic causalityDeely and biosemioticsUexKull and the concept of the UmweltAutopoiesis and/or Dissipative SystemsEmbodied cognition: a basic introduction The Embodied Conceptualisation HypothesisThe Replacement HypothesisThe Constitution HypothesisJ. and E. Gibson: a radical ecology of perceptual learning and developmentSummary and extensionsDennett: sufficiency, economy, distribution. Conclusion, postscript and transition.Chapter 4 Human cognition and developmentThe Standard Social Science Model (SSSM) Evolutionary psychologyThe Gibsons revisited: the ecology of perception and human developmentAffordances reconsidered in the context of human developmentKonnor et al: structures of human childhoodInfancy and altricialityPuberty and adolescence Affect theory: emotion and the realisation of the socialKegan: ‘evolutionary balances’ and ‘orders of consciousness’.Concluding comments: Stacey on Elias vs FreudChapter 5 The social, structure and the emotions The sociological heritageForms of solidarity: Durkheim, Chance, TenHoutenForms of solidarity: Douglas and ThompsonAnthropology and social theory (our emphasis) or What do we mean by post-humanism?A brief note on SewellConcluding remarksChapter 6 The challenge of ecological economicsA question of cycles and worldviews: Thompson, markets and hierarchies‘Our’ propositionsProposed counter-actionsAlternative voicesEcological economics: an evaluation and consequences for critical theoryChapter 7 Philosophy and Method for an Ecological-Political EconomyImperative 1: A General Ontology as/and energy-driven auto-eco-organisation Imperative 2. A general epistemology and/as auto-exo-referenceImperative 3. Revisit the specific question of scale and grainImperative 3. Revisit the specific question of scale and grainImperative 3. Revisit the specific question of scale and grainImperative 4. The identification of actants and boundaries: qualitative aspects of scale and organisation Imperative 5. Reconsider actants, scale and constraints/as interacting subject matter(s)Imperative 6: Reconsider the ethics and politics of complexity. Who acts? Persistence and Darwinism. Ethics for whom?Imperative 7: What are the demands of complexity and human ecology on openness, democracy, exemplars of reflexive inquiry?Bibliography