Social ecology

Social ecology is a perspective that links ecological problems to hierarchies and domination within human society. It argues that addressing environmental crises requires changing the social relations that produce them.

Hierarchy: A system that ranks people or groups and gives some authority over others. Social ecology treats social hierarchy as a root source of ecological domination.
Murray Bookchin: An American social theorist and political writer who developed social ecology and libertarian municipalism. He formulated social ecology's central account of hierarchy and ecological crisis.
Libertarian municipalism: A political strategy for building directly democratic local assemblies and confederations of municipalities. Bookchin proposed it as a way to realize social ecology's nonhierarchical politics.
Deep ecology: An environmental philosophy that assigns intrinsic value to nonhuman life and ecosystems. Bookchin criticized deep ecology for neglecting social hierarchy and political institutions.
Domination: The exercise of power that subordinates people, groups, or the natural world. The concept connects domination among people with domination of nature.
Janet Biehl: An American writer and political theorist associated with social ecology and libertarian municipalism. Her writing clarified and extended social ecology's political program.
Confederalism: A system in which autonomous communities coordinate through accountable, recallable delegates. Confederation links local self-government with wider ecological coordination.
Ecofeminism: A family of approaches linking the domination of women with the exploitation of nature. It shares social ecology's focus on domination while developing distinct analyses of gender.
Ecology: The study of relationships among organisms and between organisms and their environments. Social ecology extends ecological thinking to human communities and institutions.
Lewis Mumford: An American historian and critic of technology, urbanization, and modern civilization. Mumford's accounts of cities and authoritarian power influenced Bookchin's social analysis.

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