Issues Because of the name it is often assumed to have its roots in behaviorism. While some behavioral geographers clearly have roots in behaviorismNorton, W. (2001). Initiating an affair human geography and behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst Today, 2 (4), 283–290 Norton, W. (2002) Explaining Landscape Change: Group Identity and Behavior. The Behavior Analyst Today, 3 (2), 155–160 BAO due to the emphasis on cognition, most can be seen as cognitively oriented. Indeed, it seems that behaviorism interest is more recentGlass, J.E. (2007). Behavior analytic grounding of sociological social constructionism. The Behavior Analyst Today, 8 (4), 426–433 BAO and growing. This is particularly true in the area of human landscaping. Behavioral geography draws from early behaviorist works such as Tolman's concepts of "cognitive maps". More cognitively oriented, behavioral geographers focus on the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, decision making, and behavior. More behaviorally oriented geographers are materialists and look at the role of basic learning processes and how they influence the landscape patterns or even group identity. Norton, W. (1997). Human geography and behavior analysis: An application of behavior analysis to the evolution of human landscapes. The Psychological Record, 47, 439–460 The Social Construction of Nature Nature is the world which surrounds us, including all life (plants, animals, organisms, humans, etc.) and physical features. Social Construction is the way that human beings process the world around us in our minds. According to Plato's 'Classical Theory of Categorization', humans create categories of what they see through experience and imagination. Gerber, J. (1997). Beyond Dualism — the social construction of nature and the natural and social construction of human beings. Retrieved from URL Social constructionism, therefore, is this characterization that makes language and semantics possible. If these experiences and imageries are not placed into categories, then the human ability to think about it becomes limited. The social construction of nature looks to question different truths and understandings for how people treat nature, based on when and where someone lives. In academic circles, researchers look at how truths exist (ontology) and how truths are justified (epistemology). Construction is both a process and an outcome, where people's understandings of the word nature can be both literal and metaphorical, Demerit, D. (2002). What is the 'social construction of nature'? A typology and sympathetic critique. Retrieved from URL such as through giving it a human quality (Mother Nature).Williams, R. (1983). Keyword: A vocabulary of culture and society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. It can also be used to discredit science or philosophy. As a subset of behavioral geography, the social construction of nature also includes environmental ethics and values, which affect how humans treat, and interact with, the natural environment. It incorporates ideas from environmental science, ecology, sociology, geography, biology, theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, economics, and other disciplines, to bring together the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of life. Social constructionism uses a lot of ideas from Western world thinking, but it is also incorporates truths from other world views, such as the Traditional Knowledge of Aboriginal groups, or more specifically ecofeminismMerchant, C. (2003). Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture. New York, NY: Routledge.Shiva, V. (1988). Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (1st ed.). London, UK: Zed Books Ltd. and cosmology in India or ubuntuGrange, L. L. (2012). Ubuntu, Ukama, Environment and Moral Education. Journal of Moral Education, 41(3), 329-340. philosophy in Africa, for example. It is also related to postmodernismProctor, J. (1998). The Social Construction of Nature: Relativist Accusations, Pragmatist and Critical Realist Responses. Retrieved from URL and the concept of the Anthropocene, Monastersky, R. (2015). Anthropocene: The Human Age. Nature, 519(7542), 143-147. that views humans as a force that is redirecting the geological history of Earth, destroying nature. Cronon, W. (1995). The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (pp. 69-90). New York, NY: W. W. Norton Co. The Role of Science Science occurs at many dimensions and scales that do not consider culture, but can be motivated by politics, economics and ethics. Pedynowski, D. (2003). Science(s) - which, when and whose? Probing the metanarrative of scientific knowledge in the social construction of nature. Retrieved from URL Scientific knowledge consists of concepts and analysis, and is a way to represent nature. Transitions in Thought 1500s-1600s: The belief that man is responsible for environmental problemsLowenthal, D. (1990). Awareness of Human Impacts: Changing Attitudes and Emphases. In B.L. Turner(Ed.), The earth as transformed by human action: global and regional changes in the biosphere over the past 300 years (pp. 121-135). Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge. 1700s-1800s: The idea that progress is attained through controlling nature Mid-1800s: The realization that humans are having unintended impacts on the environment 1800s-1900s: The belief that technology has all the solutions to our problems 1920s-1930s: The belief that technology is destroying nature 1950s-1960s: The belief that humans risk being annihilated if they do not control technological impacts 1960s-1970s: The public awakening of human impacts on the environment with the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring 1980s: The belief that no matter the costs, unrestricted growth is needed for progress 1987: The spreading of public awareness of impacts with the publication of the Brundtland Commission Report: Our Common Future How Nature becomes Socially Constructed Vandana Shiva, author of Staying Alive: Women, Culture, and Development (1988). Nature can be socially constructed by both culturally interpreting and physically shaping the environment. Peterson, A. (1999). Environmental Ethics and the Social Construction of Nature. Retrieved from URL This can happen in three ways: Using non-human symbols to represent nature (Totemism) Using non-human animals to relate to nature (Animism) Viewing nature as an 'Other' (Naturalism) Constructions can also be categorized by giving them meaning through the process of embodiment, which has three components: The 'habitus' (the individual) The practice it originates from (the culture) An associated taxonomic group (i.e. homo sapiens) No matter how nature becomes socially constructed, though, the process itself is limited by three dimensions: The physical dimension The mental dimension The social dimension The physical dimension is limited to the human body, where the brain is responsible for creating and selecting thoughts. The mental dimension is used to understand the physical dimension and is limited to human logic. The social dimension needs moral and social order and is used to give meaning to both what is physically present and what is culturally constructed. All three dimensions must be present and linked to be able to socially construct nature.
Issues Because of the name it is often assumed to have its roots in behaviorism. While some behavioral geographers clearly have roots in behaviorism due to the emphasis on cognition, most can be seen as cognitively oriented. Indeed, it seems that behaviorism interest is more recent and growing. This is particularly true in the area of human landscaping. Behavioral geography draws from early behaviorist works such as Tolman's concepts of "cognitive maps". More cognitively oriented, behavioral geographers focus on the cognitive processes underlying spatial reasoning, decision making, and behavior. More behaviorally oriented geographers are materialists and look at the role of basic learning processes and how they influence the landscape patterns or even group identity. The Social Construction of Nature Nature is the world which surrounds us, including all life (plants, animals, organisms, humans, etc.) and physical features. Social Construction is the way that human beings process the world around us in our minds. According to Plato's 'Classical Theory of Categorization', humans create categories of what they see through experience and imagination. Social constructionism, therefore, is this characterization that makes language and semantics possible. If these experiences and imageries are not placed into categories, then the human ability to think about it becomes limited. The social construction of nature looks to question different truths and understandings for how people treat nature, based on when and where someone lives. In academic circles, researchers look at how truths exist (ontology) and how truths are justified (epistemology). Construction is both a process and an outcome, where people's understandings of the word nature can be both literal and metaphorical, such as through giving it a human quality (Mother Nature).Williams, R. (1983). Keyword: A vocabulary of culture and society. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. It can also be used to discredit science or philosophy. As a subset of behavioral geography, the social construction of nature also includes environmental ethics and values, which affect how humans treat, and interact with, the natural environment. It incorporates ideas from environmental science, ecology, sociology, geography, biology, theology, philosophy, psychology, politics, economics, and other disciplines, to bring together the social, cultural and environmental dimensions of life. Social constructionism uses a lot of ideas from Western world thinking, but it is also incorporates truths from other world views, such as the Traditional Knowledge of Aboriginal groups, or more specifically ecofeminismMerchant, C. (2003). Reinventing Eden: The Fate of Nature in Western Culture. New York, NY: Routledge.Shiva, V. (1988). Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development (1st ed.). London, UK: Zed Books Ltd. and cosmology in India or ubuntu philosophy in Africa, for example. It is also related to postmodernism and the concept of the Anthropocene, that views humans as a force that is redirecting the geological history of Earth, destroying nature. The Role of Science Science occurs at many dimensions and scales that do not consider culture, but can be motivated by politics, economics and ethics. Scientific knowledge consists of concepts and analysis, and is a way to represent nature. Transitions in Thought 1500s-1600s: The belief that man is responsible for environmental problems 1700s-1800s: The idea that progress is attained through controlling nature Mid-1800s: The realization that humans are having unintended impacts on the environment 1800s-1900s: The belief that technology has all the solutions to our problems 1920s-1930s: The belief that technology is destroying nature 1950s-1960s: The belief that humans risk being annihilated if they do not control technological impacts 1960s-1970s: The public awakening of human impacts on the environment with the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring 1980s: The belief that no matter the costs, unrestricted growth is needed for progress 1987: The spreading of public awareness of impacts with the publication of the Brundtland Commission Report: Our Common Future How Nature becomes Socially Constructed Vandana Shiva, author of Staying Alive: Women, Culture, and Development (1988). Nature can be socially constructed by both culturally interpreting and physically shaping the environment. This can happen in three ways: Using non-human symbols to represent nature (Totemism) Using non-human animals to relate to nature (Animism) Viewing nature as an 'Other' (Naturalism) Constructions can also be categorized by giving them meaning through the process of embodiment, which has three components: The 'habitus' (the individual) The practice it originates from (the culture) An associated taxonomic group (i.e. homo sapiens) No matter how nature becomes socially constructed, though, the process itself is limited by three dimensions: The physical dimension The mental dimension The social dimension The physical dimension is limited to the human body, where the brain is responsible for creating and selecting thoughts. The mental dimension is used to understand the physical dimension and is limited to human logic. The social dimension needs moral and social order and is used to give meaning to both what is physically present and what is culturally constructed. All three dimensions must be present and linked to be able to socially construct nature.
R
behaviorismNorton, W. (2001). Initiating an affair human geography and behavior analysis. The Behavior Analyst Today, 2 (4), 283–290 Norton, W. (2002) Explaining Landscape Change: Group Identity and Behavior. The Behavior Analyst Today, 3 (2), 155–160 BAO
behaviorism
R
recentGlass, J.E. (2007). Behavior analytic grounding of sociological social constructionism. The Behavior Analyst Today, 8 (4), 426–433 BAO
recent
D
Norton, W. (1997). Human geography and behavior analysis: An application of behavior analysis to the evolution of human landscapes. The Psychological Record, 47, 439–460
D
Gerber, J. (1997). Beyond Dualism — the social construction of nature and the natural and social construction of human beings. Retrieved from URL
D
Demerit, D. (2002). What is the 'social construction of nature'? A typology and sympathetic critique. Retrieved from URL
R
ubuntuGrange, L. L. (2012). Ubuntu, Ukama, Environment and Moral Education. Journal of Moral Education, 41(3), 329-340.
ubuntu
R
postmodernismProctor, J. (1998). The Social Construction of Nature: Relativist Accusations, Pragmatist and Critical Realist Responses. Retrieved from URL and
postmodernism and
D
Monastersky, R. (2015). Anthropocene: The Human Age. Nature, 519(7542), 143-147.
D
Cronon, W. (1995). The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature. In Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (pp. 69-90). New York, NY: W. W. Norton
D
Co.
D
Pedynowski, D. (2003). Science(s) - which, when and whose? Probing the metanarrative of scientific knowledge in the social construction of nature. Retrieved from URL
R
problemsLowenthal, D. (1990). Awareness of Human Impacts: Changing Attitudes and Emphases. In B.L. Turner(Ed.), The earth as transformed by human action: global and regional changes in the biosphere over the past 300 years (pp. 121-135). Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
problems
D
Peterson, A. (1999). Environmental Ethics and the Social Construction of Nature. Retrieved from URL