Network rethinking of nature and society
Resumen
In the early eighties, B. Patten and coworkers began to formulate a new ecological approach called environ theory. This theory is grounded on ecological network analysis and general systems theory, and aims to advance the theoretical core of the old ecosystem paradigm. In this paper, we attempt to reconstruct Patten’s and his coworkers’ ideas, focusing mostly on their fundamental ontological assumptions. Comparing this way of thinking with the one developed, at the same time, by the social-network models, we conclude that ecologists’ ideas about nature are analogous to social scientists’ ideas about society. Thus, environ theory and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) are not isolated enterprises within science and they can be placed into a more general reconstruction.
Key words: Actor-Network theory, dualisms, ecosystem, environ, network analysis, system ecology.
Texto completo:
PDFReferencias
Bergandi, D. (1995), “‘Reductionist holism’: an oxymoron or a philosophical chimera of E.P. Odum’s systems ecology?” Ludus Vitalis III (5): 145-180.
Bergandi, D. (2000), “‘Eco-cybernetics: the ecology and cybernetics of missing emergences,” Kybernetes 29: 928-942.
Bingham, N. (1996), “Objections: From technological determinism towards geographies of relations,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 14: 635-657.
Callon, M. and B. Latour. (1981), “Unscrewing the big Leviathan: How actors macro-structure reality and how sociologists help them to do so,” in K Knorr-Cetina, and A Cicourel (eds.), Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: Towards an Integration of Micro and Macro Sociologies. London: Routledge.
Callon, M. and B. Latour (1992), “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath school! A reply to Collins and Yearley,” in A. Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Castree, N. (2002), “False antitheses? Marxism, nature and actor-networks,” Antipode: 111-146.
Collins, H. M. and S. Yearley (1992), “Epistemological chicken,” in A. Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hacking, I. (1997), “Taking bad arguments seriously,” London Review of Books 19 (16): 14-16.
Hacking, I. (1999), The Social Construction of What? London: Harvard University Press.
Haila, Y. and P. Taylor (2001), “The philosophical dullness of classical ecology, and a Levinsian alternative,” Biology and Philosophy 16: 93-102.
Hannon, B. (1973), “The structure of ecosystems,” Journal of the Theoretical Biology 41: 535-546.
Haraway, D. (1997), Modest witness@second Millenium. FemaleMan meets OncoMouse. London: Routledge.
Harvey, D. (1997), Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hofmeyer J. (1997), “Biosemiotics: towards a new synthesis in biology,” European Journal for Semiotic Studies 9: 355-376.
Fath, B. (2004), “Network analysis in perspective: Comments on ‘WAND: an ecological network analysis user-friendly tool,” Environmental Modelling & Software 19: 341-343.
Fath B. and B. Patten. (1999), “Review of the foundations of network environ analysis,” Ecosystems 2: 167-179.
Fath B. and B. Patten. (1999b), “Quantifying resource homogenization using network flow analysis,” Ecological Modelling 123: 193-205.
Fath, B., B. Patten and J. Choi. (2001), “Complementarity of Ecological Goal Functions,” Journal of the Theoretical Biology 208: 493-506.
Jorgensen S. (1992), Integration of Ecosystems Theories — A Pattern. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Jorgensen, S.E., B.C Patten, and M. Straskraba (1992), “Ecosystems emerging: toward an ecology of complex systems in a complex future,” Ecological Modelling 62: 1-28.
Jorgensen, S.E., B.C. Patten and M. Straskraba (1999), “Ecosystems emerging: 3. Openess,” Ecological Modeling 117: 41-64.
Jorgensen, S.E., B.C. Patten and M. Straskraba. (2000), “Ecosystems emerging: 4. Growth,” Ecological Modelling 126: 249-284.
Korfiatis K. and Stamou G. (1994), “Emergence of new fields in ecology: The case of life history studies,” Hist. Phil. Life Sci. 16: 97-116.
Kwa, Ch. (1989), Mimicking Nature: The Development of Systems Ecology in the United States, 1950-1975. University of Amsterdam, Ph. D. thesis.
Kull, K. (1998), “On semiosis, Umvelt, and semiosphere,” Semiotica 120: 299-310.
Latour, B. (1993), We Have Never Been Modern. Harvester Wheatsheaf: Hemel Hempstead.
Latour, B. (1997), “On Actor-Network Theory: a few clarifications,” CSTT Home Page, Centre for Social Theory and Technology, University of Keele at: http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/stt/staff/jl/pubs-gj2.htm
Latour, B. (1999), Pandora’s Hope. London: Harvard University Press.
Latour, B. and S. Woolgar (1986), Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Laurier, E. and C. Philo (1999), “X-morphising: A review essay of Aramis,” Environment and Planning A 31: 1047-1073.
Law, J. (1987), “Technology and heterogeneous engineering: The case of the Portugese expansion,” in W. Bijker, T. Hughes and T. Pinch (eds), The Social Construction of Technical Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Law, J. (2001), “Notes on the theory of the actor network: Ordering, strategy and heterogeneity,” CSS Home Page, Centre for Science Studies, Lancaster University at: http://www.comp.lancs.as.uk/sociology/soc054jl.html
Law, J. (2004), “And if the global were small and non-coherent? Method, complexity, and the baroque,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 22:13-26.
Lewontin, R. (2001), The Triple Helix. Gene, Organism and Environment. Athens: Sinalma Press (Greek edition).
McIntosh, R. (1980), “The background and some current problems of theoretical ecology,” Synthese 43: 195-255.
McIntosh, R. (1985). The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murdoch, J. (1997a), “Inhuman/nonhuman/human: actor-network theory and the prospects for a non-dualistic and symmetrical perspective on nature and society,” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 15: 731-756.
Murdoch, J. (1997b), “Towards a geography of heterogeneous associations,” Progress in Human Geography 21: 321-337.
Murdoch, J. (1998), “The spaces of Actor-Network Theory,” Geoforum 29: 357-374.
Murdoch, J. (2001), “Ecologising sociology: Actor-Network Theory, co-construction and the problem of human exeptionalism,” Sociology 35:111-133.
Nielsen, S. and R. Ulanowicz (2000), “On the consistency between thermodynamical and network approaches to ecosystems,” Ecological Modeling 132: 23-31.
Patten, B. (1978), “Systems approach to the concept of environment,” Ohio Journal of Science 78: 206-222.
Patten, B. (1982), “Environs: relativistic elementary particles for ecology,” The American Naturalist 119: 179-219.
Patten, B. (1990), “Environ theory and indirect effects,” Ecology 71: 386-393.
Patten B. (1992), “Energy, energy and environs,” Ecological Modelling 62: 29-69.
Patten, B.C. (2001), “Jacob von Uexkull and the theory of environs,” Semiotica 134: 423-443.
Patten, B.C., M. Straskraba and S.E. Jorgensen. (1997), “Ecosystems emerging: 1. conservation,” Ecological Modelling 96: 221-284.
Pickering, A. (1993), “The mangle of practice: agency and emergence in the sociology of science,” American Journal of Sociology 58: 559-587.
Sarker, S. and A. Sidorova (2000), “Unearthing some causes of BPR failure: An actor-network theory perspective,” Association for Information Systems, Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2000). Long Beach, Califonia.
Sharov, A. (2001), “Umvelt-theory and pragmatism,” Semiotica 134: 211-228
Straskraba, M., S.E. Jorgensen and B.C. Patten (1999), “Ecosystems emerging: 2. Dissipation,” Ecological Modelling 117: 3-39.
Tansley, Á.G. (1935), “The use and abuse of vegetational concepts and terms,” Ecology 16: 284-307.
Van der Steen, W. (1993), A Practical Philosophy for the Life Sciences. New York: State University of New York Press.
Wilden, A. (1997), Epistemology and Ecology. Athens: Prisma Press (Greek edition).
Enlaces refback
- No hay ningún enlace refback.
Revista semestral editada por el Centro de Estudios Filosóficos, Políticos
y Sociales Vicente Lombardo Toledano de la Secretaría de Educación Pública,
la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa y Edicions UIB de la Universitat de les Illes Balears.
Lombardo Toledano 51, Col. Ex-Hda. Guadalupe Chimalistac,
Del. Alvaro Obregón, C.P. 01050, México, D.F.
Tels. (5255) 5661-4679 y 5661-4987
Fax: (5255) 5661-1787