aff social ecology k 7wk

8/14/2019 Aff Social Ecology K 7WK

1/18

Alt Fails

Bookchin advocates a form of radical extremism that prevents leftist coalitionsover environmental institutions which prevents the rise of mass movements andpolitical changeLight 98-Senior Fellow @ the Center for American Progress, PhD in Ethics and Pulic Polic! @ "C-#i$erside

and "CLA, former Assistant Professor of Philoso%h! and En$ironmental Studies @ &'" and S"&'-(inghamton )Andrew, *(oo+chin asand Social Ecolog!,Social Ecology After Bookchin, .998, %/ 0-12

(oo+chin3s %ersonal %olitical histor!, as he is the first to admit, is the source of his uni4ue a%%roach to deates in %olitical ecolog!/ &o one can fault himfor that/ Surel! (oo+chin has alwa!s gotten %art of it right in his critical inter5ections/ 6an! %eo%le, including m!self, ha$e not understood im%ortant%arts of his argument, and ha$e made some mista+es in our commentar! aout his wor+/ And surel!, some dee% ecologists ha$e said some ridiculousl!

awful things/ (ut the 4uestion is whether the a%%roach to %olitical ecolog! that (oo+chin cham%ions, including atendenc! to ma+e 5udgement aout interlocutors ased on a few e7treme e7am%les, is what we need toda!/ amnot entirel! s+e%tical aout the %ossiilit! of a rise of neofascism in America or an!where else,ut do thin+ that the %eo%leto worr! aout are not dee% ecologists/ he reason to tr! to reach e!ond the e7tremes of an! green %osition isthat on the en$ironmental frontlines, we need to e ale to draw on as man! %eo%le as %ossile in olstering aset of claims that is not well recei$ed in the rest of societ!/ hose of us, li+e m!self, and li+e (oo+chin , who come to%olitical ecolog! through 4uestions aout human social ine4ualit!, and who es%ouse a tem%ered form of anthro%ocentrism, need to wor+ toward

the %ossiilit! of forming wor+ale green alliances, rather than ado%ting a stance that too easil! dismisses%otential allies/ do not thin+ that the histor! of the :ld or &ew Left so far gi$es us reason to thin+ that the oldintransigent a%%roach to each other3s $iews, e$idenced in the colla%se of oth of those %eriods of left acti$ism,is what we want to see ha%%en toda!/ ;e need to e more com%atile, within limitations/ Political ecolog! must e democratic/ :ther%olitical ecologists, such as Arne &aess, agree that too hard di$isions, while good for de$elo%ing shar%er theories, ha$e adulling effect on de$elo%ing ecological mo$ements/


2/18

flourishes/ n the relati$e anon!mit! of ig cities, %eo%le who march to the eat of different drummers canmore easil! find +indred souls and a$oid social disa%%ro$al than in small homogeneous communities/ n a word,the good things aout small communities stem from e$er!one3s +nowing and eing interested in one another G and so do the ad things/ Failing to

a%%reciate this connection is a consistent %rolem among communitarian thin+ers/0 &ot all small face-to-face societies a%%earinclined to reed conformism/ 6an!, though not all, &ati$e American cultures, such as the La+ota, honored indi$idualit!/ (utthose that did so were also fre4uentl! highl! com%etiti$e, which dout would %lease (oo+chin / n fact, the wide$ariet! of modes of life among &ati$e American %eo%les suggests that (oo+chinHs idealied image of organic societies is ased atest on selecti$e e7tra%olation from some %eo%les while ignoring the e7%erience of others/0. For an anal!st whocontinuall! writes of the ad$antages of holistic reasoning and an ecological %ers%ecti$e, (oo+chin dis%la!s a %eculiar inclination to %ic+

and choose the social features he li+es and disli+es, without an! a%%arent awareness that societies cannot e constructed sim%l! !comining together all the things we ha%%en to li+e and eliminating those we disli+e/ here is a dee%er shortcoming in (oo+chin3s one-sided %raise of the

$irtues of small societies/ he! ha$e traditionall! een hostile to or indifferent toward strangers/ his is e$en true ofthe more indi$idualistic &ati$e American cultures/ (oo+chin ac+nowledges that the! rarel! made %ro$ision for the needs of strangers,ut ne$er %auses to as+ wh! this *o$ersight occurred/ ;hen our relationshi%s are intensel! face-to-face we tend to mistrust those aout whom we +nowlittle/ (oo+chin ne$er wonders whether relationshi%s de%ending u%on %ersonal +nowledge of one another can e du%licated for humanit! as a whole,where our +nowledge of %articulars must necessaril! e small to none7istent/ All this has een discussed ! F/ A/


3/18

ecause we were o%%ressing each other/ (ut the Mo%%ressionM of nature is fundamentall! different from theo%%ression of sentient eings/ t is, in fact, meaningless, since Mo%%ressionM onl! has meaning in reference to sentient

eings with conscious intents/ tHs not wrong to %ut radioacti$e waste in the ground ecause we Mo%%ressM thedirt, ut ecause we and other sentient life forms are threatened ! those to7ins , and ecause we, humans, aestheticall!$alue a non-irradiated en$ironment/;e donHt Mo%%ressM nature, ut rather im%act on it in a wa! that causes us, and othersentient eings, harm or dis%leasure/ (oo+chin seems confused on this asic %oint/ ;alter ruett AndersonHs adamantl! MmanagerialMreen line, articulated in o o$ern E$olution is an e7am%le of an ecological %olitics that is more com%atile with the anthro%ocentrism of democraticleft thought than (oo+chinHs meta%horical eco-anarchism/ Anderson %oints out that humans ha$e een im%acting on the ecos!stem for tens of thousands

of !ears, and that our challenge is not towithdraw from nature altogetheras dee% ecologists suggest2, or to get into organo-

anarchic harmon! with it as (oo+chin suggests2, ut to start managing it res%onsil!/ heasic thrust of(oo+chinHs Msocial ecolog!M is the assertion that ecological destruction is a direct result of Msocial hierarch!/Mhus, an anarchic societ! is the onl! answerto ecological destruction/ ;hile it is %roal! true that social hierarchies ma+e it moredifficult to reorient oursel$es toward ecological %rotection, this seems to e another ma5or wea+ness of (oo+chinHs anal!sis/ t seems 4uite %ossile that

an egalitarian societ! could e ecologicall! destructi$e, and $ice-$ersa/ n fact, (oo+chin contradicts himself whenhe %oints out that feudalism was not ecologicall! destructi$e, and ac+nowledges the %ossiilit! that cor%orateca%italist or ureaucratic collecti$ist societies could institute ecological %olicies / f social hierarch! and ecocide arerelati$el! autonomous, the left can onl! stri$e to understand how the! interact, reinforce, and undercut one another, and uild a set of $alues andmo$ements to change them oth/ ;hat (oo+chin tends toward is the reduction of the struggle against one to the struggle against the other/

he alternative is vague and unsupported by any evidencehierarchy isinevitable.

Damian Finar;hite, / Lecturer at oldsmith College/ *


4/18

local le$el the! will disa%%ear/&or does ioregionalism ha$e much of a res%onse to the MgloaliationM ofcor%orate ca%italism and consumerist mar+et societ!, a%art from ad$ocating local resistance or long-odds cam%aigns to re$o+e thecor%orate charters of the worst en$ironmental offenders/ hese efforts do little to hinder the inertia of this %rocess/M And little is e$er said aouthow to restrain the $oracious a% %etite of a gloal-cor%orate-consumer culture for the resources in e$er! cornerof the %lanet/ E$en for the de$out, %romoting dee% ecological s%iritualit! and ecocentric $alues seems %itifull! inade4uate in the face of such forces/Perha%s it is ecause the! ha$e little if an! theor! of social change, and thus cannot re all! en$ision a %ath toward asustainale societ!,that man!ioregional dee% ecologistsre$ert to a%ocal!%tic scenarios/ 6an! of them see the colla%se ofecos!stems and industrial ci$iliation as the onl! %ossile means toward the en$isioned changes / :thers decide that%olitical acti$ism is ho%eless, and %rioritie instead s%iritual strategies for e$o+ing dee% ecological s%iritualit!, ho%ing, self-consciousl!, for a miracle/


5/18

Alt!Authoritarianism

Bookchins bioregionalism would result in small" oppressive communities.Carter, / Senior Lecturer in Politics @ "ni$ersit! of 'or+/ *he Politics of the En$ironment, %/ 19, &eil/

Decentraliation ma! e a necessar! condition for %artici%ator! democrac!, ut there is no guarantee that a decentralied societ! will

e democratic/ Sale .982 concedes that a societ! ased on a natural ioregion ma! not alwa!s e characteried !democratic or lieral $alues ecause another HnaturalH %rinci%le, di$ersit!, im%lies that ioregional societiesshould oast a wide range of %olitical s!stems, some of which, %resumal!, might e authoritarian/ E$en if the%olitical s!stem is democratic, there ma! e drawac+s aout life in a small communit!/ Social controlmechanisms ma! %ro$e o%%ressi$e if, as oldsmith et al/ .9?2 suggest, offenders are rought to heel ! the

weight of %ulic o%inion/ Discrimination against minorities or non-conformist o%inion ma! e rife/ Small%arochial societies ma! also e intellectuall! and culturall! im%o$erished, %erha%s reducing inno$ation in cleantechnologiesFran+el .982/ So, ironicall!, the homogenous decentralied societ! ma! lac+ the di$ersit! that ecologists $alue/


6/18

Bioregionalism Bad # $nvironment

Bioregionalism would cause more rapid environmental destruction.;hite, -Lecturer at oldsmith College )Damian Finar, *


7/18

%ede the &olitical

'ierarchies are natural and inevitableBookchins utopian alternative destroysthe (eft.


8/18

$ngaging institutions is essential to protect the environment ) bioregionalismand localied activism does not provide not a lens for substantive social change


9/18

$nvironmental &ragmatism +ood

Broader philosophical ,uestions should be cast aside in the face of trueconse,uences ) pragmatism is the best way to approach environmentalconservation&orton 9J-Professor of Philoso%h! @ eorgia ech &r!an, En$ironmental Pragmatism, Ed, Light and Iat

%g/ .??2

n our search for an en$ironmental ethic we will ne$er, sumit, find an! en$ironmental $alues or goals more defensile than the sustain-ailit!%rinci%le, which asserts that each generation has an oligation to %rotect %roducti$e ecological and %h!sical %rocesses necessar! to su%%ort o%tions

necessar! for future human freedom and welfare/ he normati$e force su%%orting the %rotection of the en$ironment for futuregenerations should e ased on a commitment to uilding 5ust, well-ada%ted and sustainale humancommunities/ Acce%ting res%onsiilit! for our e7%anding numers and for the %ower of our technologiesfollows sim%l! from the recognition that we now affect the %roducti$it! of the human haitat and the $er!sur$i$al of the human communit!/ his res%onsiilit! ecomes less and less esca%ale as we learn the man!conse4uences,e7%ected and une7%ected, of our increasingl! $iolent and %er$asi$e alteration of natural s!stems/8 his%rinci%le is consistent with a Darwinian em%hasis on sur$i$al and com%lements a %ragmatic conce%tion of truth/ he acce%tance of oth the facts ofhuman im%acts and the associated moral res%onsiilit! to %rotect the integrit! of ecological communities as re%ositories of man! human o%tions and$alues in the future is destined, in the terms of Peirce, to e ado%ted as the conclusion of all rational in4uirers, as the! struggle through man!

e7%eriments to ma+e coherent sense of human e7%erience/ elie$e that oth the descri%ti$e %rolem of understanding theim%acts of our actions on future generations and our resulting res%onsiilities as moral eings must eaddressed within %rocesses of in4uir! constituti$e of the Peirceian communit! of in4uirersactors/ For e7am%le, considerings%ecies threatened with e7tinction to re%resent Moo+sM of information G information that ma! e essential tofuture generations in their struggle to understand and act within a changing en$ironment G seems to entail thatthe oligationto contriute to the %rocess of in4uir! re4uires %rotection of the sources of information and +nowledge for future in4uirers/

+ood environmental decisions are made by evaluating conse,uences&orton 9J-Professor of Philoso%h! @ eorgia ech &r!an, En$ironmental Pragmatism, Ed, Light and Iat%g/ .??2

his multi-scalar and iogeogra%hic a%%roach to en$ironmental $alues assumes at the outset that management will %roceed from a human %ers%ecti$e

and also, that human $alues 4uite legitimatel! sha%e the modeling decisions of ecological and %h!sical scientists /his latter %oint is deser$ing of further e7%lanationN the decisions of iological and %h!sical scientists ha$e an una$oidale normati$e com%onent/ he%oint is not to %urge science of those $alues, which is oth im%ossile and undesirale, the %oint is to understand and 5ustif! those $alues in s%ecific

conte7ts re4uiring action, and to attem%t to ad5ust them through %ulic discussion and education when the! ecome malada%ti$e/A successfulintegrati$e ethic for the en$ironment must e morall! %luralistic, ut it must also e conte7tual , rather thaneither o5ec ti$ist or su5ecti$ist/ ood en$ironmental decisions are ones that ta+e into account li+el! im%actson a numer of s%atio-tem%oral scales in s%ecific conte7ts/ As the world ecomes more full of humans and as technolog! ecomesmore %owerful, there will e more and more cases in which there will e s%ill-o$er im%acts from one le$el of hierarchical organiation to another,

es%eciall! from our e7%anding economic and social s!stems to the natural s!stems that form their ecological conte7t/ En$ironmental %olic! andaction must do more than enhance $alues in one d!namic, such as the d!namic dri$ing the economic decisionof indi$idual farmers it is necessar! also to e7amine the im%acts on the larger - and usuall! slower-changing d!namic thatdetermines the structure and di$ersit! of the landsca%e/


10/18

hus ends m! e7%lanation of, and %lea for, a %ractical en$ironmental ethic that see+s to integrate %luralistic %rinci%les across multi%le le$elsd!namics/#ather than reducing %luralistic %rinci%les ! relating them to an underl!ing $alue theor! that recognies onl! economic %references or MinherentM $alueas the ontological stuff that unifies all moral 5udgments, ha$e sought integration of multi%le $alues on three irreducile scales of human concern and$aluation, choosing %luralism o$er monism, and attem%ting to integrate $alues within an ecologicall! informed, multi-scalar model of the humanhaitat/ elie$e that the non-ontological, %luralistic a%%roach to $alues can etter e7%ress the inducti$el! ased $alues and management a%%roach of

Leo%oldHs land ethic, which can e seen as a %recursor to the tradition of ada%ti$e management/ And, if the %rolem of en$ironmentalism isthe need to su%%ort rationall! the goals of en$ironmental %rotection T the %rolem Callicott misconcei$ed as the need for arealist moral ontolog! to estalish the Mo5ecti$it!M of en$ironmental goals T then endorse the roadl! Darwinian a%%roach to

oth e%istemolog! and morals %ro%osed ! the American %ragma tists/ he en$ironmental communit! is thecommunit! of in4uirers it is the communit! of in4uirers that, for etter or worse, must struggle, immediatel!

as indi$iduals and indefinitel! as a communit!, oth to sur$i$e and to +now/ n this struggle useful +nowledge will einformation aout how to sur$i$e in a ra%idl! e$ol$ing culture and haitat/ t is in this sense that human actors are a %art of multi-la!ered nature our actions ha$e im%acts on multi%le d!namics and multi%le scales/ ;e humans willunderstand our moral res%onsiili ties onl! if we understand the conse4uences of our action as the! unfold onmulti%le scales and the human communit! will onl! sur$i$e to further e$ol$e and ada%t if we learn to achie$eindi$idual welfare and 5ustice in the %resent in wa!s that are less disru%ti$e of the %rocesses , e$ol$ing on larger s%atio-tem%oral scales, essential to human and ecological communities/1

&ragmatism is the best way to access social ecology and environmentalpreservation.Par+er 9J-Professor of Philos%h! @ rand alle! State "ni$ersit! Iell!, Professor of Philoso%h!, rand

alle! State "ni$ersit!, En$ironmental Pragmatism Ed/ Light and Iat2

Pragmatism sees %hiloso%hical ethics as an ongoing attem%t to determine what is good, and what actions are right/ he sudden emergence of a new areaof ethical in4uir! is a signal that something has changed at a $er! dee% le$el of our collecti$e life/ E7%erience has thrown us a whole new set of %rolemsin recent !ears, resulting in a atch of new intellectual industries/ En$ironmental ethics is one among se$eral new disci%lines that ha$e emerged, first toe7tend, and then to transform settled wa!s of thin+ing aout $alue/6edical ethics, usiness ethics and feministfeminine ethics are other de$elo%mentssimilar in this wa! to the emergence of en$ironmental ethics/ n each of these areas, traditional theories were first a%%lied to new %rolematics/ he new%rolematics soon outstri%%ed the a$ailale conce%tual resources, showing the inade4uacies of such recei$ed theoretical orientations as utilitarianism,contractualism and deontological ethics/ E7tension of conce%ts shaded o$er into the de$elo%ment of new conce%ts, new theoretical framewor+s/ hetendenc! of en$ironmentalists to rel! on ecological meta%hors in their thin+ing has led some to emrace an ethic that recognies the centralit! ofrelations/ his ethic, li+e that of %ragmatism, recognies the intrinsic $alue, within and for the s!stem, of all the things related/ 6uch wor+ in feministand feminine ethics also focuses on relations/ A numer of writers ha$e noted that the notion of an Methic of careM a%%ears to e a %romising direction for

en$ironmental ethics to %ursue, and the literature on MecofeminismM is growing steadil!/M From the %ragmatic %ers%ecti$e, thisemerging ethic of relationshi%s a%%ears to e ontologicall! more sound than traditional ethical theories/En$ironmental ethics has also een associated with inno$ati$e %ulic %olic!-ma+ing %rocedures, new

a%%lications of the legal s!stem, and grass-roots acti$ism/ hese wa!s of %utting en$ironmental awareness intoaction ha$e come a long wa! in the %ast few decades,ut of course there is a long wa! !et to go/ he aim in all these areas,according to the %ragmatic $iew, is to +ee% e7%erimenting with wa!s to restructure our social institutions sothat the %ulic has a real $oice in determining the +ind of en$ironments we inhait / Pragmatism, as noted

efore, sees indi$iduals as the source of genuine insight into what is needed, and accordingl! tries to ma7imie%artici%ation in go$erning/ Pragmatism is, in this res%ect as in others, closel! allied with the ideals of the socialecolog! mo$ement/?


11/18

-uncipalism Fails

Alt failsBookchin massively overestimates the potential for revolution in /societyClar+ 98-regor! F/ Curtin Distinguished Professor in


12/18

&erm12eformism +ood

Bookchin thinks that a wide variety of political strategies need to be triedsimultaneously.(oo+chin and Foreman, 9.-UDirector Emeritus @ the nstitute for Social Ecolog!, UU"S en$ironmentalistand founder of Earth FirstV )6urra!, Da$e,Defending the Earth: a dialogue between Murray Bookchin and

Dave Foreman, South End Press @ (oston, Ed/ ., Pg/ 9-0B

;e were %rett! clear from the eginning, howe$er, thatwe were not the radical en$ironmental mo$ement/ ;e onl!saw oursel$es as one slice of the radical en$ironmentalmo$ement/ +now ha$e no asolute,total, and com%lete answerto the worldwide ecological crisiswe are in/ 6! %ath is not the right %ath itHs the %ath that wor+s for me/ thin+there are doens and doens of other a%%roaches and ideas that we will need in order to sol$e the crisis weHre inright now/ ;e need that +ind of di$ersit! within our mo$ement/ n Earth FirstV, we ha$e tended to s%ecialie in what weHre good atN wilderness%reser$ation and endangered s%ecies/ hat doesnHt mean the other issues arenHt im%ortant it 5ust means that we mostl!tal+ aout what we +now most aout/ ;e wor+ on what mo$es us most %articularl!/ t doesnHt mean that we3rethe whole o%eration, or that we3re co$ering all the ases/ ;e need all the a%%roaches and angles/

2eformism solvesthe alt is a false choice between utopia and oblivionClar+ 98-regor! F/ Curtin Distinguished Professor in


13/18

now/ (oo+chin correctl! cautions us against succuming to a mere *%olitics of the %ossile/


14/18

/ocial $cology!Anthropocentric

/ocial ecology reinforces anthropocentrismFo7 90-Professor of Philoso%h! @ the "ni$ersit! of Central Lancaster );arwic+, Dee% Ecolog! for the ?.stCentur!,htt%Nwww/dhushara/comoo+renewal$oices?dee%/htmB

:ne ma! certainl! s%ea+ in terms of certain forms of human social organiation eing more conduci$e to certain +inds of relationshi%s with the

nonhuman world than others/ (oo+chin, howe$er, insists far too much that there is a straightforward, necessar! relationshi%etween the internal organiation of human societies and their treatment of the nonhuman world/ o thise7tent, his social ecolog! is constructed u%on a logicall! facile asis/ 6oreo$er, it ser$es to reinforceanthro%ocentrism, since the assum%tion that the internal organiation of human societies determines theirtreatment of the nonhuman world carries with it the im%lication that we need onl! concentrate on interhumanegalitarian concerns for all to ecome ecologicall! well with the world-a %oint ta+e u% again later/ n doing

$iolence to the com%le7ities of social interaction, sim%listic social and %olitical anal!ses of ecologicaldestruction are not merel! descri%ti$el! %oor and logicall! facile, the! are also morall! o5ectionale on twogrounds, sca%egoating and inauthenticit!/
http://www.dhushara.com/book/renewal/voices2/deep.htmhttp://www.dhushara.com/book/renewal/voices2/deep.htm


15/18

ech +ood

echnology is a means of freeing people from labor and allowing freedom andcreativity(oo+chin and ane+ ?+-UDirector Emeritus @ the nstitute for Social Ecolog!, UUnter$iewer )6urra!,Da$e, nstitute for Social Ecolog!, *nter$iew with 6urra! (oo+chin (! Da$e ane+2, 8.?,

htt%Nwww/social-ecolog!/org?8inter$iew-with-murra!-oo+chin-!-da$e-$ane+,DIPB (oo+chins%ea+ing2

;hen the S%anish Ci$il ;ar ro+e out in .9J, went ac+ to the Communists, ecause the! seemed to e the onl! ones who were fighting Franco/ wanted to fight in S%ain, ut was too !oung/ Soon after re5oining the Communists, left them again, this time %ermanentl!/ After high school, did notgo to college T went to wor+ in a foundr! near &ew 'or+/ ho%ed that the Second ;orld ;ar would end in re$olutions, as the first war had, andecame a rots+!ist/ ;hen the war ended without a re$olution, ecame disillusioned with orthodo7 6ar7ism and realied had to rethin+ e$er!thing/ came out of the arm! and went to wor+ in the automoile industr!, where the wor+ers, formerl! militant, were ecoming e$er more middle class in their

mentalit!/ So in the .91 went to the #CA nstitute, where studied electronic engineering/ saw that man!machines could ultimatel! re%lace most human toil/(eing a socialist, wanted to reduce the amount of laor that%eo%le ha$e to gi$e to societ!, whether under ca%italism or socialism, so that the! could e free to ecomecreati$e human eings, follow their own interests, and fulfill their own talents/
http://www.social-ecology.org/2000/08/interview-with-murray-bookchin-by-dave-vanek/http://www.social-ecology.org/2000/08/interview-with-murray-bookchin-by-dave-vanek/


16/18

hesis 3rong

Bookchin is wrongthxere is no correlation between hierarchy and dominationof nature.;hite, / Lecturer at oldsmith College/ *


17/18

etween coerci$e and o%%ressi$e social-stratified social relations and re%resentati$e %olitical formsTwhich clearl! gi$e rise to social dominationTandsuch relations ased on *legitimate authorit! or *democratic authorit!, which %erha%s do not/ ?. ;hat can we ma+e though of the further diachroniclin+ that (oo+chin has sought to forgeN etween social hierarch!, social domination, and the *idea of dominating nature=


18/18

ransition 3ars

he transition to bioregionalism will cause ma0or wars.a!lor, ?G :sh+osh Foundation Professor of #eligion and Social Ethics, and Director of En$ironmentalStudies at the "ni$ersit! of ;isconsin )(ron, (eneath the Surface, ?, %g/ ?8?B

t is not clear, howe$er, that in the long run and on e$er! continent and during e$er! era,$iolence and conflict would e greater underioregional forms of %olitical organiation than under %olitical units drawn according to iore gionaldifferences/ Fear of al+aniation raises im%ortant concerns, ut a uni $ersal condemnation of ioregional%olit! does not logicall! follow/ ar! Sn!der, for e7am%le, would li+el! %oint to anthro%ologist A/ L/ IroeerHs wor+ which shows that &ati$eAmericans ha$e usuall! li$ed %eacefull!, largel! in differing ioregional %ro$inces/ 18 A more trenchant %rolem is how ioregionalists and theanarchists who influenced their most influential theorists2 often assume that %eo%le are naturall! %redis%osed unless corru%ted ! life in unnatural,hierarchical, centralied, industrial societies2 Q to coo%erati$e eha$ior/ ; his deatale assum%tion a%%ears to de%end more on radical en$ironmental

faith, a +ind of Paul She%ard-st!le m!thologiing, than on ecolog! or anthro%olog!/ "nfortunatel! for ioregional theor!, e$olutionar! iolog!shows that not onl! coo%eration %romotes s%ecies sur$i$al so also, at times, does aggressi$e com%etiti$eness/ J (ased on its undul! ros! $iew of the %otential for human altruism, it is dout ful that ioregionalism can offersufficient structural constraints on the e7ercise of %ower ! selfish and well-entrenched elites / t should e o$ious,for e7am%le, that nation-state go$ernments will not $oluntaril! cede authorit!,MAn! %olitical reorganiation along ioregional lines

would li+el! re4uire Mwides%read $iolence and dislocation/ Few ioregional ists seem to recognie this

li+elihood, or how de$astating to nature such a transi tional struggle would %roal! e/6oreo$er, ma+ing an im%ortant

ut often o$erloo+ed %oint aout %olitical %ower, %olitical theorist Daniel Deudne! warnsN

aff social ecology k 7wk

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