Towards a Social Ecology: Contextual Appreciation of the Future in the Present

This title is printed to order. This book may have been self-published. If so, we cannot guarantee the quality of the content. In the main most books will have gone through the editing process however some may not. We therefore suggest that you be aware of this before ordering this book. If in doubt check either the author or publisher’s details as we are unable to accept any returns unless they are faulty. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Sir Geoffrey Vickers This book is described as a contribution ‘towards a social ecology’. As such it is timely and welcome. The phrase is not yet familiar, the concept still imprecise; we need urgently to move toward a better understanding of it. The word ‘ecology’ began to become familiar outside scientific circles when human intervention in natural processes began to have effects so unforeseen, so dramatic and so disastrous as to make headline news. It might be infestation by an unfamiliar pest, like the rabbit in Australia; or soil erosion, from ill-controlled clearing and cropping; or pollution from fertilizers or industrial wastes; or urban proliferation; or toxic accumulation of pesticides. From the crescendo of such warnings, industrial man began to learn again what agricultural man learned long ago-that he is only one among many species, whose continued existence depends not only or primarily on competitive struggle but on most complex systems of mutual support, not less effective for being unconscious and unplanned. These are the kind of systems that ecologists study; so we look to ecology for light upon them.