scan in Table 6.1 - modernism and alternatives
We still believe all of these.
pg 23 -"The world is far too complex for us to perceive and establish the conditions for sustainability."
pg 26 - "coevolution explanations invoke relationships between entitites which affect the evolution of the entitites" which are always changing
pg 47 -
Chap 8: Coevolutionary
coevolving social and ecological systems
patchwork
coevolution view is quite different from dominant Western view that
these three static views lead to environmental catastrophes
read between Aug 15 and 19, 2009
pg 1 - "Modernity promised control over nature through science, material abundance through superior technology, and effective government through rational social organization."
pg 2 - "modernization and its more recent manifestation as development, have betrayed us."
pg 3 - "Soviet Union's demise was a case of ecocide ..."
3 key tenets of modernism
We still believe all of these.
Chapter 2:
sustainability is being defined in modernism and Western ideas
need a valuing scheme that deals with increasing levels of analysis
pg 20 - no way to keep track of all the flows necessary " sustainable development cannot be defined operationally."
for example: during US energy crisis, found out how interrelated all the factors are - energy, pollution, growth
Norgaard's conclusion - not more energy in bureaucracy and regulation but a shift toward a coevolutionary framework
pg 22 - "coevolutionary pattern of explanation"
Chap 3:
pg 23 -"The world is far too complex for us to perceive and establish the conditions for sustainability."
pg 26 - "coevolution explanations invoke relationships between entitites which affect the evolution of the entitites" which are always changing
star diagram of how values, knowledge, organization, environment and technology are all connected
need to totally rebuild or reconstruct the system, and not just from the same pieces
1st argument
"modernity coevolved wiht modern beliefs"
these beliefs are highly complimentary
Western science has many differnet analyses which can't converge into a coherent whole
coevolution of science, technology and society
Chapter 4
our current system of technology and culture adapted to evolved together and is tightly linked
example: agriculture and eventual use of chemicals was a coevolution process
lessons from coevolution view of environmental history
pg 47 -
Chapter 5
idea of "progress" replaced "providence"
led to technological optimism <!-- which is what I call cornucopian -->
technology might be changing faster than culture
dilemma is whether to moderate technological change
values left out of discourse
based on belief in positivism
capitalism's "invisible hand"
Chapter 6
pluralistic
key premise of "Western patterns of thinking help explain the cultural and biological destruction associated with modernism"
dominant premises are self-reinforcing and have been very successful
scan in Table 6.1 - modernism and alternatives
early Western science, job was to discover static world as God created it
<!-- one major contributions of Darwin's view, no set things, everything is changing all the time -->
<!-- Dave Ervin and Elise Granek, new set up for co-evolution includes values at the beginning of the institution ->
pg 70 - "But our public belief in atomism legitimates the position of those who argue that fixing the parts is sufficient as well as the position of those who argue that fixing the parts has not been effective in the past and thus nothing can be done"
equilibrium solutions that are predictable
public agreement on monism ends up through out different ideas that are inconsistent with modernism
Chapter 7: Two maladaptive determinisms
environmental determinism
culture determinsm
pg 78 - "the two opposing determinisms are maladaptive. As set and separate patterns of thought, they obscure our understanding of the human predicament more than they help"
each is partially correct view of causation but together/constrast they are wrong
<!-- world views -->
debates about different world views are not about how individuals think
pg 80 - but are the result of how differences are reinforced within culturs, especially intellectual communities
Chap 8: Coevolutionary
coevolving social and ecological systems
patchwork
coevolution view is quite different from dominant Western view that
these three static views lead to environmental catastrophes
Chapter 9: Coevolutionary cosmology
chapter lead in quote from Paul and Roth 1987
choosing a framework is more than just a choice between rational methods, its a "choice of how one wants to live one's life"
conventional cosmology - the universe is made of parts (atoms, quarks, etc.)
coevol. cosmol. - starts with people and how we know
accepting that we are part of the cosmos and how our understanding changes the cosmos makes cosmology similar to epistemology
need adaptive environmental management
collective nature of understanding
to identify gaps
<!-- see scientific method -->
pg 99 - different approaches <!-- silos, from Norton --> need to accept "that our separate ways of knowing in individual disciplines do not merge to a coherent whole"
and no one person can know everything
"problem of how we derive collective understaings of complex systems"
all aspects of sciene should be part of public discourse because they determine the outcome pattern of understandings
including what is chosen to study (in the first place) and experimental design
<!-- we have to choose because we can't study everything -->
give holistic description - blatant circularity is required <!-- Bateson -->
we structure social systems base on what we think we know
management is based on that
Chapter 10 -
Amazon example for the coevolution of human society and agriculture
swidden ag is the "climax" outcome of the succession
high heterogeneity leads to high losses and transaction costs
this interferes with development investment
Chapter 11: The tyranny of liberal individualism
what level of the organization gets to choose, individual, family, ....
ways to handle risk
large numbers
diverse crops, the portfolio approach
global or regional connections to cover losses in one place
much of modern values are linked to individualism (atomism)
connections are down played in individualistic, atomoistic, mechanistic world
to move toward the "coevolutionary patchwork" need to allow people to behave as cultural groups
Chapter 12: democratizing knowledge
groups of people can lean more than individual but the connectiosn need to be managed
coordinating different understandings is very difficult
complexity of problems reinforces technocracy
individual from different disciplines have very different patterns of thought that make it very difficult to work together
pg 150 - understanding complex problems is a social process
pg 151- can collective understanding be more effective under different structures?
can't have monism and democracy together, they are incompatible
pg 153 - Western science cannot address complex problems <!-- means what I call "wicked" problems that have values embedded -->
markets empower people to reach individual goals but disrupt reaching collective goals
these are related to generally how progressive institutions (like large federal programs) disempower people
pg 153/4- Democracy should do more to promote collective knowledge and sharing of information
there is some evidence that science works bettern in egalitarian structures, when each scientist feels they are part of a community working on a problem
<my-text> need to adopt conscious conceptual pluralism
drop the myth of monism
Chapter 13: coevolving discursive communities
<!-- coevolutionary approach: ecosystem remediation through reconstruction of a community, social environmental entrepreneurism, and coevolutionary framework all share the same underlying theory which is that a community or network has to self assemble and organize -->
pg 159 - system structure that promotes cooperation and coevolution
community
spacial patterns for clustering
social hierarchy
pg 160 - <scale> inability to reach sustainable solution in Brazil between ecosystems, local communities and Western version of progress .... "mirrors the larger problem modernity faces in matching social and environmental systems at different scales."
163 - "I have a strong sense that the only way that geographically flexible, flat govenance structure will be able to replace the present technocracy, will be throug the trust and undestanding that comes with strong communities."
<!-- institutions may evolve to be communities -->
<!-- relate to Putnam stuff on trust, democracy, engagement -->
panels and self-selected committees are one mechanism to get more different opinions into the hierarchy
pg 170 - <nicaragua> "if communities are to be more responsive to signals fom ecosystems, they will have to use technologies which help people work with the ecosystems rather than dominate them"
<!-- in Bramedero, set up information links to the environment for when the community pieces coevolve, i.e. provide the information infrastructure early as a "condition" for evolution, not as a driver -->
"a consciousness of the types of knowledge and social organization that might combine into a sustainable future ... help select "technologies for a more suitable coevoluation."
use reciprocity to make communities more connected and to close the loops <!-- in Net Work, I talk about the importance of back loops to build reciprocity and trust -->
Chap 14: Coevoling culture patchwork quilt
independent cultures that have valuable knowledge to share
not just isolating them to protect them, but need to have functional cultures that are isolated (in part) to stay functional
then we need ways to connect to these cultures to learn from them, to learn from their attempts
<!-- discusses the point that these cultures may not want to be pluralistic, as a paradox of assymetric pluralism -->
<!- - this is dealt with by Granovetter with isolated sections of the network and a few connectors -->