Environment and Utopia: A Synthesis

ISBN-13: 9781461585992 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 284 str.

Robert Brownstein

Opis

to imagine and innovate with our ability to comprehend and manipulate natural and social forces. We must produce constructive contact between our visions of hope and our scientific knowledge of the physical and social environment. This work is an effort to further that contact. We seek to focus upon the future relationship between man and his environment. Specifically, we attempt to synthesize two distinct approaches to this issue: environmental theory and utopian speculation. These two perspectives have rarely, if ever, been deliberately focused upon one an- other. We believe that each suggests new questions and hopefully new an- swers that would not normally be revealed through the separate insights of the other discipline. Both perspectives have existed in one form or another for centuries. Yet today, there is an increased urgency for their mutual development and interaction. This century, to its loss, has tended to abandon utopian specu- lation. We witness "a retreat from constructive thinking about the future in order to dig oneself into the trenches of the present. It is a ruthless elim- ination of future-centered idealism by today-centered realism. We have lost the ability to see any further than the end of our collective nose. " 2 At the same time, contemporary research on the environment suggests an urgent need for change in basic patterns of human behavior, for the for- mation of new institutions and social structure.

Spis treści

I: Conceptual and Philosophical Background.- 1 Environmental and Ecological Thought.- Environmental Thought.- Determinism.- Possibilism.- Probabilism and Pragmatism.- Neodeterminism.- Human Ecology.- Ecosystem Perspectives.- References and Notes.- 2 Utopias and Utopian Thought.- Classical Utopian Models.- Postmedieval Utopias.- Thomas More’s Utopia.- Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Utopias.- Nineteenth-Century Utopias.- Twentieth-Century Utopias.- Antiutopian Criticism.- Modern Utopias.- A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Utopian Models.- Ecological Dimensions.- Architecture and Physical Design.- The Human Aggregate.- Dimensions of Organizational Structure and Functioning.- Behavior Settings.- Social Climate.- Personal-Growth Dimensions.- Relationship Dimensions.- System-Maintenance and System-Change Dimensions.- References and Notes.- II: Case Studies of Optimal Communities.- 3 The Oneida Community.- Ecological Dimensions: Geographic and Architectural Features.- The Human Aggregate.- Organizational Structure and Functioning.- Government.- Economy.- Family.- Education.- A Behavior Setting: The Dining Hall.- Social Climate.- Personal Ideals and Value System.- Personal Relationships.- Cohesion.- Support.- Spontaneity.- System Maintenance and System Change.- Clarity.- Social Control.- Innovation.- References and Notes.- 4 The Israeli Kibbutzim.- Ecological Dimensions: Geographical and Architectural Features.- The Human Aggregate.- Organizational Structure.- Government.- Economy.- Family and Education.- Behavior Settings.- Communal Meals.- General Meetings.- Social Climate.- Personal Ideals and Value System.- Personal Relationships.- Cohesion.- Support.- Spontaneity.- System Maintenance and System Change.- Clarity.- Social Control.- Innovation.- References and Notes.- 5 The New Town of Columbia, Maryland.- Ecological Dimensions.- Geographic Features.- Architectural Features.- The Human Aggregate.- Organizational Structure and Functioning.- Government.- Economy.- Family.- Education.- Social Climate.- Personal Ideas and Value System.- Personal Relationships.- Cohesion.- Support.- Spontaneity.- System Maintenance and System Change.- Clarity.- Social Control.- Innovation.- References and Notes.- 6 B. F. Skinner’s Walden II.- Ecological Dimensions: Geographic and Architectural Features.- The Human Aggregate.- Organizational Structure and Functioning.- Government.- Economy.- Family.- Education.- A Behavior Setting: The Dining Hall.- Social Climate.- Personal Ideals and Value System.- Personal Relationships.- Cohesion.- Support.- Spontaneity.- System Maintenance and System Change.- Clarity.- Social Control.- Innovation.- Twin Oaks: An Experimental Walden II.- References and Notes.- III: A Synthesis of Environmental and Utopian Perspectives.- 7 An Environmental Perspective on Utopia.- The Theoretical Relationship.- Substantive Issues.- Selection of Local Environment.- Complexity.- Innovation and Change.- Planning of the Social Environment.- Architectural Variables: Physical Space and Building Design.- Organizational Structure and Functioning.- Social Climate.- Ecological Balance.- Population Control.- Use of Resources.- Control of Industry and Technology.- New Values.- Conclusions.- Scale.- References and Notes.- 8 A Utopian Perspective on the Environment.- Theoretical Relationship.- Substantive Issues.- Ethical Choice.- Human Motivation.- Qualitative Transformation.- Holistic Social Planning.- Political Impact.- References and Notes.- 9 Toward a Political Ecological Utopia.- A Political Ecological Utopia.- Diversity.- Flexibility.- Social and Ecological Coherence.- Balance.- World Scale.- References and Notes.- Author Index.