The Context of Social Ecology

Autor u članku ukazuje na tendencijsko povećavanje interesa za ekološku i socijalnoekološku problematiku u znanosti, društvu i javnosti općenito. Interes je motiviran od najbanalnijih »pomodnosti« do zabrinutosti za sudbinu čovječanstva. Porast interesa za ekološku problematiku otvara mogućnosti razvoja socijalne ekologije kao discipline. Njeno utemeljenje autor pokazuje u odnosima triju sistema: tehničkog, socijalnog j prirodnog. Iz njihove relativne samostalnosti ali i međuodnosa izvode se i tri pristupa: tehnologizam, antropocentrizam i naturalizam, kao i tri hipoteze: hipoteza tehnološkog suficita, socijalnog maksimuma i hipoteza ekološkog deficita. Za socijalnu ekologiju najznačajnija je hipoteza socijalnoekološkog optimuma. U tom kontekstu autor skicira i shvaćanja o socijalnoj ekologiji. Po jednima ona je posebna disciplina, po drugima nadznanost, a po trećima problemsko područje. Ona se shvaća kao sintetička znanost i kao integrativna znanost, iako je smatraju i hibridnom disciplinom. Iz krize kompetentnosti disciplina može se izvesti socijalna ekologija kao disciplina, a iz tendencije globaliziranja problema izvodi se socijalno-ekološko područje istraživanja. Pod pritiskom ekološke krize socijalna ekologija tendira transformiranju od znanosti u pokret na bazi znanosti.
In the article the author points out the trend of increased interest in ecological and socio-ecological problems in science, society and generally in public. The interest ranges from the simplest »fashion« to the concern for destiny of mankind. An increased interest in ecological problems gives new possibilities of the development of social ecology as a discipline. Its foundation is shown in the relation of three systems: technical .social and natural. The three approaches can be seen in their relative independence and inter-relation: technologism, anthropocentrism, and naturalism, as well as three hypotheses: the hypothesis of technological surplus, social maximum and of the ecological deficiency. The most important for social ecology is the hypothesis of social-ecological optimum. The author also displays his ideas of social ecology. Some consider it a discipline, others a decline, and the rest a problem. It is regarded as a synthetic science and as an integrative science. It may as well be considered an artificial (»hybrid«) discipline. Social ecology as a discipline can be drawn out of a crisis of any valid discipline, and socio-ecological field of research is seen through the tendency of making problems global. Under the pressure of ecological crisis, social ecology tends towards transformation from science to a movement based on science.