Against Hybridism: Why We Need to Distinguish between Nature and Society, Now More than Ever

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Malm
Keyword(s):  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Property Dualism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Opposite Position ◽  
Ecological Marxism ◽  
Warming World ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Social Components

AbstractIt is fashionable to argue that nature and society are obsolete categories. The two, we are told, can no longer be distinguished from one another; continuing loyalty to the ‘binary’ of the natural and the social blinds us to the logic of current ecological crises. This article outlines an argument for the opposite position: now more than ever – particularly in our rapidly warming world – we need to sift out the social components from the natural, if we wish to understand the crises and retain the possibility of intervening in them. Tracing the current of hybridism to the writings of Bruno Latour, this article ends with a critique of the foremost proponent of a hybridism in Marxist garb: Jason W. Moore. Against his theories, it suggests that historical materialism is a form of property dualism that distinguishes between social and natural relations while considering them equally material in substance. That is also the analytical premise of ecological class hatred, the flames of which ecological Marxism seeks to fan.

Surface Media: McLuhan, the Bauhaus and the Tactile Values of TV

2021 ◽  
pp. 1357034X2110089
Author(s):  
Henning Schmidgen
Keyword(s):  
Media Use ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Marshall Mcluhan ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Light Beams ◽  
Digital Computers

Marshall McLuhan understood television (TV) as a tactile medium. This understanding implied what Bruno Latour might call a ‘symmetrical’ conception of tactility. According to McLuhan, not only human actors are endowed with the sense of touch. In addition, TV, digital computers and other ‘electric media’ use light beams and similar scanning techniques for ceaselessly ‘caressing the contours’ of their surroundings. This notion of tactility was crucially shaped by the holistic aesthetics of the early Bauhaus. To get at the specific features of the TV image, McLuhan relied on the writings of László Moholy-Nagy and Sigfried Giedion, in particular their use of photography for capturing and highlighting the ‘texture’ of surfaces. However, he hardly reflected the social and political factors that, in the age of electric media, contribute to the ‘symmetricization’ of touch.

SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF ELECTRIFICATION OF AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORT

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvard Hachaturovna Aslikyan ◽  
◽  
Votinova Votinova ◽  
Yuri Alekseyevich Urgalkin ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Internal Combustion ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Combustion Engines ◽  
Environmental Aspects ◽  
Harmonious Development ◽  
Motor Transport ◽  
The Social ◽  
Electric Traction ◽  
Nature And Society

This article discusses the social and environmental aspects of the development of motor transport. The necessity of converting vehicles with internal combustion engines to electric traction is considered as a necessary condition for the harmonious development of nature and society

scholarly journals Concept of the development of nature and society in the works of P. Teilhard de Chardin and comparison of his views with the ideas of globalization of Z. Bauman

2021 ◽  
pp. 67-74
Author(s):  
Egor Sergeevich Shushakov
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Key Characteristics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Nature And Society ◽  
Physical Phenomena ◽  
The Universe

The object of this research is the concept of evolutionary development of the universe of P. Teilhard de Chardin and the concept of “liquid” reality” of Z. Bauman. The subject is the methodology of P. Teilhard de Chardin and his idea of the future of social development, as well as Z. Bauman’s description of the key characteristics of globalization. Emphasis is placed on the methodology of P. Teilhard de Chardin (interaction of tangential and radial energies), as within the framework his concept, the social, biological and physical phenomena do not have fundamental differences and abide the general universal laws. In broad outlines, the article reconstructs the idea of P. Teilhard de Chardin on social development and the theses of Z. Bauman about the key characteristics of modern globalization. The novelty of the research lies in the attempt to present the methodology of P. Teilhard de Chardin as acceptable for modern science and highlight its predictive power; as well as in comparative analysis of the ideas of Z. Bauman and P. Teilhard de Chardin on the processes of global social integration. The following conclusions are made: both scholars advance the idea on the progressing polarization of society; 2) globalization in their works correlates with the process of individualization of social actors, and defense of own identity.

Roy Bhaskar’s Critical Realism and the Social Science of Marxian Economics

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Westra
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Scientific Discovery ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Marxian Economics ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific

This article supports claims that critical realism philosophy of science, as refounded in the hands of Roy Bhaskar, offers valuable knowledge enhancing insight into the advancement of Marx’s research program. However, it maintains that key principles set out by Bhaskar have not been adequately assimilated by those working with critical realism in the field of Marxist studies. When they are properly considered, they point to the necessity of reconstructing Marx’s corpus on a divergent basis from the conventional form it has assumed since the codification of “Marxism” by Karl Kautsky in the late nineteenth century as an overarching theory of history or historical materialism, wherein Marx’s economic studies in Capital are portrayed as but a subtheory. The article summarily breaks down three cardinal scientific principles elaborated by Bhaskar, which carry the most vital implications for Marxism. These are the bringing of ontology “back in” to theory construction, the robust case made for social science as a capital-S science, and the specification of retroduction as strategy for scientific discovery. It then explores the principles with regard to three abiding and interrelated questions of the Marxist research program: first is the very condition of intelligibility of economic theory; second is the question of the raison d’être for the dialectical architecture of Capital; third is the social scientific implications of the cognitive sequence in Marxism. In this endeavor the article introduces work in the Uno-Sekine tradition of Japanese Marxism. It shows how Uno’s reconstruction of Marxism is closely supported by Bhaskar’s fundamental criteria for science in a way that serves to strengthen Marx’s own scientific claims for his work.JEL Classification: B51, B400

Identifying the degree of dependence of foreign direct investments on adjusted net savings of the recipient country

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Larysa V. Rudenko-Sudarieva ◽  
Yuliia A. Shevchenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Social Welfare ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
Recipient Country ◽  
Foreign Direct Investments ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Components ◽  
Adjusted Net Savings ◽  
Macroeconomic Indicator

Due to the loss of the dominance of GDP as the main macroeconomic indicator of the social welfare, this study uses a more accurate and realistic indicator – adjusted net savings (ANS). Based on the economic and mathematical modelling, the study suggests a new method for identifying the value of adjusted net savings as a stimulating factor to increase the inflow of transnational capital to the recipient country. After assessing the current environment of investment attractiveness of recipient countries, attention was paid to identifying the degree of dependence of foreign direct investment on adjusted net savings. The novelty of this study is conditioned by the search and identification of the dominant macroeconomic indicator of investment attractiveness of the recipient country. Such an indicator will most fully reveal the conditions and prospects for attracting investments. The aim of this study was to consider alternative approaches to the country's development and to demonstrate the existence of a functional relationship between the volume of foreign direct investment and adjusted net savings. The purpose of this study is to build models of the dependence of foreign direct investment on adjusted net savings of the recipient country as an alternative indicator that most widely reveals the level of social welfare and economic development of the studied countries. Adjusted net savings consist of elements that cover the sustainable development of society, namely the economic, environmental, and social components. As a result, using the correlation and analysis of variance, the existence of dependence and its degree of influence on the volume of foreign direct investment on the adjusted net savings of the recipient country has been proved.

scholarly journals Evaluating and Planning Green Infrastructure: A Strategic Perspective for Sustainability and Resilience

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2726 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angioletta Voghera ◽  
Benedetta Giudice
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Green Infrastructure ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Ecological Indicators ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Strategic Perspective ◽  
Social Components

In the light of the current changing global scenarios, green infrastructure is obtaining increasing relevance in planning policies, especially due to its ecological, environmental and social components which contribute to pursuing sustainable and resilient planning and designing of cities and territories. The issue of green infrastructure is framed within the conceptual contexts of sustainability and resilience, which are described through the analysis of their common aspects and differences with a particular focus on planning elements. In particular, the paper uses two distinct case studies of green infrastructure as representative: the green infrastructure of the Region Languedoc-Roussillon in France and the one of the Province of Turin in Italy. The analysis of two case studies focuses on the evaluation process carried on about the social-ecological system and describes the methodologies and the social-ecological indicators used to define the green infrastructure network. We related these indicators to their possible contribution to the measurement of sustainability and resilience. The analysis of this relationship led us to outline some conclusive considerations on the complex role of the design of green infrastructure with reference to sustainability and resilience.

scholarly journals Natural Sciences and Social Sciences

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-119
Author(s):  
C.S.A (Kris) van Koppen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Human Sciences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nature And Society

Klintman, Mikael. 2017. Human Sciences and Human Interests: Integrating the Social, Economic, and Evolutionary Sciences. London: Routledge.Jetzkowitz, Jens. 2019. Co-evolution of Nature and Society: Foundations for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Studies. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

scholarly journals Historical Materialism

2018 ◽  
pp. 36-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Blackledge
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social World ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
The Real ◽  
Georg Lukacs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Theory Of History

Marx’s theory of history is often misrepresented as a mechanically deterministic and fatalistic theory of change in which the complexity of the real world is reduced to simple, unconvincing abstractions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Though Stalin attempted to transform Marxism into something akin to this caricature to justify Russia’s state-capitalist industrialization after 1928, neither Marx nor his most perceptive followers understood historical materialism in this way. This chapter shows that Marx’s theory of history, once unpicked from its misrepresentations, allows us to comprehend social reality as a non-reductive, synthetic, and historical totality. This approach is alive to the complexity of the social world without succumbing to the descriptive eclecticism characteristic of non-Marxist historiography. And by escaping the limits of merely descriptive history, Marxism offers the possibility of a scientific approach to revolutionary practice as the flipside to comprehending the present, as Georg Lukács put it, as a historical problem.

Mnemonic Interplay: A Response to Byrskog, Bauckham, Zimmermann, and Schröter

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 173-182
Author(s):  
Anthony Le Donne
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
Historical Jesus ◽  
False Dichotomy ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Components

In response to the essays by Bauckham, Byrskog, Schröter, and Zimmermann concerning “memory”, Le Donne summarizes and critiques four different applications of mnemonic studies to the Jesus tradition. The author notes the different approaches to sociology relative to memory and argues that both autobiographical memory and collective memory fall under the wider category of social memory. Moreover, contra Bauckham social memory is helpful avenue of study for historical Jesus research once properly understood. Contra Schröter, he argues that the study of the social components of autobiographical memory ought to play a part in scholarship concerning the Gospels. He also challenges the false dichotomy between the “remembered Jesus” and the “historical Jesus” as posed by Zimmermann.

Reframing Society and Culture in Post-Soviet Russia

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 710-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Davis ◽  
Howard Davis ◽  
Sergey Erofeev
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Historical Materialism ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Academic World ◽  
International Trends ◽  
The Social ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Soviet Experience

Abstract How far have social theorists in Russia engaged with the international academic world since the era dominated by Soviet-style historical materialism? Mainstream theories in sociology and ‘culturology’ use new vocabulary but remain loyal to ideological interpretations of society and culture. A minority of Russian sociologists have translated, adopted and critiqued Western ideas. Works by three such authors are explored and compared. This leads to consideration of the institutional development of the social sciences in post-Soviet Russia and their relative isolation from international trends, especially in the regions. The discussion highlights the limitations of old institutional hierarchies and suggests that there is new demand for internationally-trained social scientists to analyze and interpret the post-Soviet experience in innovative ways.

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