SOCIAL ECOLOGY

1. The subject of social ecology and its relationship with other sciences

2. History of social ecology

3. The essence of social and environmental interaction

4. Basic concepts and categories characterizing social and environmental relationships, interaction

5. Human environment and its properties

1. The subject of social ecology and its relationship with other sciences

Social ecology is a recently emerged scientific discipline, the subject of which is the study of the patterns of society's impact on the biosphere and those changes in it that affect society as a whole and each person individually. The conceptual content of social ecology is covered by such sections of scientific knowledge as human ecology, sociological ecology, global ecology, etc. At the time of its inception, human ecology was focused on identifying the biological and social factors of human development, establishing the adaptive possibilities of its existence in conditions of intensive industrial development. Subsequently, the tasks of human ecology expanded to the study of the relationship between man and the environment, and even problems of a global scale.

The main content of social ecology comes down to the need to create a theory of interaction between society and the biosphere, since the processes of this interaction include both the biosphere and society in their mutual influence. Consequently, the laws of this process must be in a certain sense more general than the laws of development of each of the subsystems separately. In social ecology, the main idea associated with the study of the patterns of interaction between society and the biosphere is clearly traced. Therefore, its focus is on the regularities of society's impact on the biosphere and those changes in it that affect society as a whole and each person individually.

One of the most important tasks of social ecology (and in this respect it approaches sociological ecology - O.N. Yanitsky) is to study the ability of people to adapt to ongoing changes in the environment, to identify unacceptable boundaries of changes that have a negative impact on people's health. These include the problems of a modern urbanized society: the attitude of people to the requirements of the environment and to the environment that the industry forms; issues of restrictions that this environment imposes on relationships between people (D. Markovich). The main task of social ecology is to study the mechanisms of human impact on the environment and those changes in it that are the result of human activity. The problems of social ecology are mainly reduced to three main groups on a planetary scale - a global forecast for the population and resources in conditions of intensive industrial development (global ecology) and the determination of ways for the further development of civilization; regional scale - the study of the state of individual ecosystems at the level of regions and districts (regional ecology); microscale - the study of the main characteristics and parameters of urban living conditions (ecology of the city, or sociology of the city).

Social ecology is a new area of ​​interdisciplinary research that has taken shape at the intersection of natural (biology, geography, physics, astronomy, chemistry) and humanitarian (sociology, cultural studies, psychology, history) sciences.

The study of such large-scale complex formations required the unification of the research efforts of representatives of different “special” ecologies, which, in turn, would be practically impossible without harmonizing their scientific categorical apparatus, as well as without developing common approaches to organizing the research process itself. Actually, it is precisely this need that owes its appearance to ecology as a single science, integrating in itself the particular subject ecologies that developed earlier relatively independently of each other. The result of their reunification was the formation of a “big ecology” (according to N.F. Reimers) or “macroecology” (according to T.A. Akimova and V.V. Khaskin), which currently includes the following main sections in its structure:

General ecology;

Bioecology;

Geoecology;

Human ecology (including social ecology);

Applied Ecology.

1. History of social ecology

The term "social ecology" owes its appearance to American researchers, representatives of the Chicago School of Social Psychologists - R. Park and E. Burges, who first used it in his work on the theory of population behavior in an urban environment in 1921. The authors used it as a synonym for the concept of "human ecology". The concept of “social ecology” was intended to emphasize that in this context we are talking not about a biological, but about a social phenomenon, which, however, also has biological characteristics.

One of the first definitions of social ecology was given in his work in 1927 by R. McKenzil, who characterized it as the science of the territorial and temporal relations of people, which are influenced by selective (selective), distributive (distributive) and accommodative (adaptive) forces of the environment. Such a definition of the subject of social ecology was intended to become the basis for the study of the territorial division of the population within urban agglomerations.

Significant progress in the development of social ecology and the process of its separation from bioecology occurred in the 60s. 20th century The 1966 World Congress of Sociologists played a special role in this. The rapid development of social ecology in subsequent years led to the fact that at the next congress of sociologists, held in Varna in 1970, it was decided to create a Research Committee of the World Association of Sociologists on Problems of Social Ecology. Thus, as noted by D. Zh. Markovich, the existence of social ecology as an independent scientific branch was, in fact, recognized and an impetus was given to its faster development and a more accurate definition of its subject.

During the period under review, the list of tasks that this branch of scientific knowledge, which was gradually gaining independence, was called upon to solve, significantly expanded. If at the dawn of the formation of social ecology, the efforts of researchers mainly boiled down to searching in the behavior of a territorially localized human population for analogues of laws and environmental relations characteristic of biological communities, then from the 2nd half of the 60s, the range of issues under consideration was supplemented by the problems of determining the place and role of a person. in the biosphere, developing ways to determine the optimal conditions for its life and development, harmonizing relationships with other components of the biosphere. The process of its humanitarization that has engulfed social ecology in the last two decades has led to the fact that, in addition to the above tasks, the range of issues it develops includes the problems of identifying the general laws of the functioning and development of social systems, studying the influence of natural factors on the processes of socio-economic development and finding ways to control action. these factors.

In our country by the end of the 70s. conditions have also developed for separating socio-environmental issues into an independent area of ​​interdisciplinary research. A significant contribution to the development of domestic social ecology was made by E.V. Girusov, A.N. Kochergin, Yu.G. Markov, N.F. Reimers, S. N. Solomina and others.

2. The essence of social and environmental interaction

When studying the relationship of man with the environment, two main aspects are distinguished. First, the whole set of influences exerted on a person by the environment and various environmental factors is studied.

In modern anthropoecology and social ecology, environmental factors to which a person is forced to adapt are commonly referred to as "adaptive factors" . These factors are usually divided into three large groups - biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic environmental factors. Biotic factors − these are direct or indirect effects from other organisms inhabiting the human environment (animals, plants, microorganisms). Abiotic factors - factors of inorganic nature (light, temperature, humidity, pressure, physical fields - gravitational, electromagnetic, ionizing and penetrating radiation, etc.). A special group is anthropogenic factors generated by the activities of man himself, the human community (pollution of the atmosphere and hydrosphere, plowing fields, deforestation, replacement of natural complexes with artificial structures, etc.).

The second aspect of the study of the relationship between man and the environment is the study of the problem of human adaptation to the environment and its changes.

The concept of human adaptation is one of the fundamental concepts of modern social ecology, reflecting the process of human connection with the environment and its changes. Initially appearing in the framework of physiology, the term "adaptation" soon penetrated other areas of knowledge and began to be used to describe a wide range of phenomena and processes in the natural, technical and human sciences, initiating the formation of a large group of concepts and terms that reflect various aspects and properties of adaptation processes. man to the conditions of his environment and its result.

The term "human adaptation" is used not only to refer to the process of adaptation, but also to comprehend the property acquired by a person as a result of this process, adaptability to the conditions of existence (adaptation ).

However, even under the condition of an unambiguous interpretation of the concept of adaptation, its insufficiency is felt to describe the process it denotes. This is reflected in the emergence of such clarifying concepts as “deadaptation” and “readaptation”, which characterize the direction of the process (deadaptation is the gradual loss of adaptive properties and, as a result, a decrease in fitness; readaptation is the reverse process), and the term “disadaptation” (disorder of the body's adaptation to changing conditions of existence), reflecting the nature (quality) of this process.

Speaking about the varieties of adaptation, they distinguish genetic, genotypic, phenotypic, climatic, social, etc. adaptation. implementation and duration. Climate adaptation is the process of adapting a person to the climatic conditions of the environment. Its synonym is the term "acclimatization".

Ways of adaptation of a person (society) to changing conditions of existence are designated in the anthropoecological and socio-ecological literature as adaptive strategies . Various representatives of the plant and animal kingdom (including humans) most often use a passive strategy of adaptation to changes in the conditions of existence. We are talking about a reaction to the impact of adaptive environmental factors, which consists in morphophysiological transformations in the body aimed at maintaining the constancy of its internal environment.

One of the key differences between man and other representatives of the animal kingdom is that he uses a variety of active adaptive strategies much more often and more successfully. , such as, for example, strategies for avoiding and provoking the action of certain adaptive factors. However, the most developed form of an active adaptive strategy is the economic and cultural type of adaptation characteristic of people to the conditions of existence, which is based on the object-transforming activity they carry out.

4. Basic concepts and categories that characterizesocio-ecological relationships, interaction

One of the most important problems facing researchers at the present stage of the formation of social ecology is the development of a unified approach to understanding its subject. Despite the obvious progress made in the study of various aspects of the relationship between man, society and nature, as well as a significant number of publications on social and environmental issues that have appeared in the last two or three decades in our country and abroad, on the issue of what exactly this branch of scientific knowledge studies, there are still different opinions.

According to D.Zh. Markovich, the subject of study of modern social ecology, understood by him as a particular sociology, is the specific relationship between a person and his environment. Based on this, the main tasks of social ecology can be defined as follows: the study of the influence of the environment as a combination of natural and social factors on a person, as well as the influence of a person on the environment, perceived as the framework of human life. T.A. Akimov and V.V. Haskin believe that social ecology as part of human ecology is a complex of scientific branches that study the relationship of social structures (starting with the family and other small social groups), as well as the relationship of man with the natural and social environment of their habitat. According to E.V. Girusov, social ecology should first of all study the laws of society and nature, by which he understands the laws of self-regulation of the biosphere, implemented by man in his life.

Modern science sees in Man, first of all, a biosocial being that has gone through a long path of evolution in its development and developed a complex social organization.

Coming out of the animal kingdom, Man still remains one of its members.

According to the ideas prevailing in science modern man descended from an ape-like ancestor - driopithecus, a representative of a branch of hominids that separated about 20-25 million years ago from higher narrow-nosed monkeys. The reason for the departure of human ancestors from the general line of evolution, which predetermined an unprecedented leap in improving its physical organization and expanding the possibilities of functioning, was the change in the conditions of existence that occurred as a result of the development of natural processes. The general cooling, which caused a reduction in the areas of forests - natural ecological niches inhabited by human ancestors, made it necessary for him to adapt to new, extremely unfavorable circumstances of life.

One of the features of the specific strategy of adaptation of human ancestors to new conditions was that they "stake" mainly on the mechanisms of behavioral rather than morphophysiological adaptation. This made it possible to respond more flexibly to current changes in the external environment and thus more successfully adapt to them. The most important factor that determined the survival and subsequent progressive development of man was his ability to create viable, extremely functional social communities. Gradually, as a person mastered the skills of creating and using tools, creating a developed material culture, and, most importantly, developing intellect, he actually moved from passive adaptation to the conditions of existence to their active and conscious transformation. Thus, the origin and evolution of man not only depended on the evolution of living nature, but also largely predetermined serious environmental changes on Earth.

In accordance with the approach proposed by L. V. Maksimova to the analysis of the essence and content of the basic categories of human ecology, the concept of “man” can be revealed by compiling a hierarchical typology of his hypostases, as well as human properties that affect the nature of his relationship with the environment and the consequences for him this interaction.

A.D. Lebedev, V.S. Preobrazhensky and E.L. Reich. They revealed the differences between the systems of this concept, distinguished by biological (individual, gender and age group, population, constitutional types, races) and socio-economic (personality, family, population group, humanity) characteristics. They also showed that each level of consideration (individual, population, society, etc.) has its own environment and its own ways of adapting to it.

Over time, ideas about the hierarchical structure of the concept of "man" became more complicated. So, the model-matrix N.F. Reimers already has 6 series of hierarchical organization (species (genetic anatomical morphophysiological basis), ethological-behavioral (psychological), labor, ethnic, social, economic) and more than 40 terms.

The most important characteristics of a person in anthropoecological and socio-ecological studies are his properties, among which L.V. Maksimova highlights the presence of needs and the ability to adapt to the environment and its changes - adaptability. The latter is manifested in human adaptive abilities and adaptive features. . She owes her education to such human qualities as variability and heredity.

The concept of adaptation mechanisms reflects ideas about how a person and society can adapt to changes in the environment.

The most studied at the present stage are the biological mechanisms of adaptation, but, unfortunately, the cultural aspects of adaptation, covering the sphere of spiritual life, everyday life, etc., remain poorly studied until recently.

The concept of the degree of adaptation reflects the measure of a person's adaptability to specific conditions of existence, as well as the presence (absence) of properties acquired by a person as a result of the process of his adaptation to changes in environmental conditions. As indicators of the degree of adaptation of a person to specific conditions of existence, studies on human ecology and social ecology use such characteristics as social and labor potential and health.

The concept of "social and labor potential of a person” was proposed by V.P. Kaznacheev as a peculiar, expressing the improvement of the quality of the population, an integral indicator of the organization of society. The author himself defined it as "a way of organizing the life of a population, in which the implementation of various natural and social measures to organize the life of populations creates optimal conditions for socially useful social and labor activities of individuals and groups of the population."

As another criterion of adaptation in human ecology, the concept of "health" is widely used. Moreover, health, on the one hand, is understood as an integral characteristic of the human body, in a certain way influencing the process and outcome of a person’s interaction with the environment, on adaptation to it, and on the other hand, as a person’s reaction to the process of his interaction with the environment, as a result of his adaptation to conditions of existence.

3. The human environment and its properties

The concept of "environment" is fundamentally correlative, as it reflects subject-object relations and therefore loses content without determining which subject it refers to. The human environment is a complex formation that integrates many different components, which makes it possible to talk about a large number of environments, in relation to which the “human environment” acts as a generic concept. The diversity, the multiplicity of heterogeneous environments that make up a single human environment, ultimately determine the diversity of its influence on him.

According to D. Zh. Markovich, the concept of “human environment” in its most general form can be defined as a set of natural and artificial conditions in which a person realizes himself as a natural and social being. The human environment consists of two interrelated parts: natural and social (Fig. 1). The natural component of the environment is the total space directly or indirectly accessible to a person. This is, first of all, the planet Earth with its diverse shells. The public part of the human environment is made up of society and social relations, thanks to which a person realizes himself as a social active being.

As elements of the natural environment (in its narrow sense), D.Zh. Markovich considers the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, plants, animals and microorganisms.

Plants, animals and microorganisms make up the living natural environment of man.

Rice. 2. Components of the human environment (according to N. F. Reimers)

According to N. F. Reimers, the social environment, combined with the natural, quasi-natural and arte-natural environments, forms the totality of the human environment. Each of these environments is closely interconnected with others, and none of them can be replaced by another or be painlessly excluded from the general system of the human environment.

L. V. Maksimova based on the analysis of extensive literature (articles, collections, monographs, special, encyclopedic and explanatory dictionaries) made a generalized model of the human environment. A somewhat abbreviated version is shown in Fig. 3.

Rice. 3. Components of the human environment (according to L. V. Maksimova)

In the above scheme, such a component as "living environment" deserves special attention. This type of environment, including its varieties (social, industrial and recreational environments), is now becoming an object of close interest of many researchers, primarily specialists in the field of anthropoecology and social ecology.

The study of human relations with the environment led to the emergence of ideas about the properties or states of the environment, expressing the perception of the environment by a person, an assessment of the quality of the environment from the point of view of human needs. Special anthropoecological methods make it possible to determine the degree of compliance of the environment with human needs, evaluate its quality and, on this basis, identify its properties.

The most common property of the environment from the point of view of its compliance with the biosocial requirements of a person is the concept of comfort, i.e. compliance of the environment with these requirements, and discomfort, or inconsistency with them. The extreme expression of discomfort is extremeness. Discomfort, or extremeness, of the environment can be most closely related to its properties such as pathogenicity, pollution, etc.

Issues for discussion and discussion

1. What are the main tasks of social ecology?
2. What are planetary (global), regional and microscale environmental problems?
3. What elements, sections does "big ecology" or "macroecology" include in its structure?
4. Is there a difference between "social ecology" and "human ecology"?
5. Name two main aspects of social-ecological interaction.
6. The subject of the study of social ecology.
7. List the biological and socio-economic features of the concept of "man" in the system "man - environment".

How do you understand the thesis that "the diversity, the multiplicity of heterogeneous environments that make up a single human environment, ultimately determine the diversity of its influence on him."

What color is the grass or sky on a clear summer day? What color is orange or lemon? Probably, any person from early childhood will answer these questions without thinking twice. And here is the question: “What kind of color is it -“ withered rose ”or“ marengo ”? - will make many think before answering. Although it is one of the common favorite colors in fashion design. A good secondary education level is also required, and even better - artistic special training in order to distinguish the color of "Pompeii" from the color of "Syracuse" or the color of "Kuindzhi" from "Van Dyck". Well, to the question: “What color is the“ thigh of a frightened nymph ”or“ the song of a lark ”?” - only the authors of these names will certainly answer. But the names of these colors and others like them have already sounded more than once from the Parisian catwalks of high fashion, and, probably, many non-Parisians would like to know out of curiosity, and maybe sew something for themselves in the color of the “nymph”. Unfortunately, neither the color printing of magazines, nor the broadcast on television will be able to convey the true color. And then they come to the rescue main color characteristics, which can be used to choose any color. True, simple seamstresses do not really use them, but professional fashion designers, textile workers, designers, as well as military and criminalists, manufacturers of paints and precision measuring devices cannot do without them.

Hue, lightness and saturation- subjective basic characteristics of color. They are called subjective because they are used to describe visual sensations, in contrast to the objective, determined with the help of instruments.

Color tone - the main characteristic of chromatic colors, is determined by the similarity of a given color with one of the colors of the spectrum. Color tone denotes a person's own color sensations - red, yellow, yellow-red, and each of these sensations is generated by radiation of a certain wavelength (A.). So, for example, a red color tone corresponds to a wavelength of 760 nm, and blue-green to 493 nm. When we look at a red rose and a yellow dandelion, we see that they differ in color tone - red and yellow.

Achromatic colors have no hue. "Color tone" in color science and "tone" in painting are different concepts. Artists change the color tone or tonality with white paint, which reduces the intensity of the color, increasing its lightness. Or by applying layers of paint one on top of the other. The concept of "tone" is also used in drawing. In the visual arts, terms such as halftone, undertone, shade . A semitone is a darker or lighter tone. For example, blue and light blue. A subtone is an admixture of another color in the main color tone, which creates a shade. For example, magenta is a shade of red, namely red with a blue undertone.

Lightness. When we look at two green leaves on the same branch of a tree, we see that they can be the same in color tone, but one can be lighter (lit by the sun) and the other darker (in the shade). In these cases, the colors are said to differ in lightness.

Lightness - a characteristic of colors that determines the proximity of chromatic and achromatic colors to white. Rated by reflectance (p), measured as a percentage or nits (nt). In the lightness scale, the lightest color is white. The darkest is black, between them are gradations of pure gray. Among the spectral colors, the lightest is yellow, the darkest is violet.

Lightness is characterized by the degree of brightness of direct or reflected radiation, but at the same time, the feeling of lightness is not proportional brightness . We can say that the brightness is physical basis lightness. Very often in the floristic literature these concepts are confused.

Brightness (radiation power) is an objective concept, since it depends on the amount of light entering the observer's eye from an object that emits, transmits or reflects light. In everyday life, the difference between brightness and lightness is usually not noticed, and both concepts are considered almost equivalent. However, one can notice some difference in the use of these terms, which also reflects the difference in both characteristics. As a rule, the word "brightness" is used to characterize especially light surfaces, strongly illuminated and reflecting a large amount of light. So, for example, snow lit by the sun is a bright surface, and the white wall of a room is light. The term "brightness" is predominantly used to evaluate light sources. Finally, this term is often used to characterize color, referring to such qualities of the latter as saturation or purity.

Saturation. If we compare two transparent glasses, one filled with orange juice and the other filled with water slightly tinted with orange dye, we will notice a difference in orange saturation. (Yes, and the taste of these drinks are also very different).

Saturation is a characteristic of colors, which is determined by the content of pure chromatic color in a mixed one (P), expressed in fractions of a unit. Pure chromatic colors are spectral colors. Their purity is taken as one. The lower the saturation of a chromatic color, the closer it is to achromatic colors, and the easier it is to find an achromatic color corresponding to it in lightness. Therefore, sometimes in the floristry literature there is a definition of saturation as “the degree of difference of a given chromatic color from a gray color with the same lightness. The combination of hue and saturation is called chromaticity .

Thus, all chromatic colors are evaluated by parameters, the numerical definition of which makes it possible to characterize all possible combinations of color emissions.

That is, anywhere in the world it is possible to determine with almost 100% accuracy what is the color loved by Parisian designers - “the color of the thigh of a frightened nymph”. (If, of course, they will kindly tell the world the color parameters - the main characteristics of this color.)

Topic: Subject, tasks, history of social ecology

Plan

1. Concepts of "social ecology"

1.1. Subject, problems of ecology.

2. Formation of social ecology as a science

2.1. Human evolution and ecology

3. The place of social ecology in the system of sciences

4. Methods of social ecology

Social ecology is a scientific discipline that considers relationships in the "society-nature" system, studying the interaction and relationships of human society with the natural environment (Nikolai Reimers).

But such a definition does not reflect the specifics of this science. Social ecology is currently being formed as a private independent science with a specific subject of study, namely:

the composition and characteristics of the interests of social strata and groups that exploit natural resources;

perception by different social strata and groups of environmental problems and measures to regulate nature management;

taking into account and using in the practice of environmental measures the characteristics and interests of social strata and groups

Thus, social ecology is the science of the interests of social groups in the field of nature management.

Tasks of social ecology

The goal of social ecology is to create a theory of the evolution of the relationship between man and nature, the logic and methodology for transforming the natural environment. Social ecology is designed to clarify and help bridge the gap between man and nature, between humanitarian and natural sciences.

Social ecology as a science should establish scientific laws, evidence of objectively existing necessary and essential links between phenomena, the features of which are the general nature, constancy and the possibility of their foresight, it is necessary to formulate the main patterns of interaction of elements in the "society - nature" system in such a way that this made it possible to establish a model for the optimal interaction of elements in this system.

When establishing the laws of social ecology, one should first of all point to those that proceeded from the understanding of society as an ecological subsystem. First of all, these are the laws that were formulated in the thirties by Bauer and Vernadsky.

First law says that the geochemical energy of living matter in the biosphere (including humanity as the highest manifestation of living matter, endowed with reason) tends to maximum expression.

Second law contains a statement that in the course of evolution those species of living beings remain that, by their vital activity, maximize the biogenic geochemical energy.

Social ecology reveals patterns of relationships between nature and society, which are as fundamental as physical patterns. But the complexity of the subject of research itself, which includes three qualitatively different subsystems - inanimate and living nature and human society, and the short existence of this discipline lead to the fact that social ecology, at least at present, is predominantly an empirical science, and patterns are extremely general aphoristic statements (as, for example, Commoner's "laws").

Law 1. Everything is connected with everything. This law postulates the unity of the World, it tells us about the need to look for and study the natural origins of events and phenomena, the emergence of chains connecting them, the stability and variability of these connections, the appearance of gaps and new links in them, stimulates us to learn to heal these gaps, and also to predict the course of events .

Law 2. Everything must go somewhere. It is easy to see that this is, in essence, just a paraphrase of known conservation laws. In its most primitive form, this formula can be interpreted as follows: matter does not disappear. The law should be extended to both information and the spiritual. This law directs us to study the ecological trajectories of the elements of nature.

Law 3. Nature knows best. Any major human intervention in natural systems is harmful to her. This law, as it were, separates man from nature. Its essence is that everything that was created before man and without man is the product of lengthy trial and error, the result of a complex process based on such factors as abundance, ingenuity, indifference to individuals with an all-encompassing striving for unity. In its formation and development, nature has developed a principle: what is collected, then sorted out. In nature, the essence of this principle is that no substance can be synthesized in a natural way if there is no means to destroy it. The whole mechanism of cyclicity is based on this. A person does not always provide for this in his activity.

Law 4. Nothing is given for free. In other words, you have to pay for everything. In essence, this is the second law of thermodynamics, which speaks of the presence in nature of a fundamental asymmetry, i.e., the unidirectionality of all spontaneous processes occurring in it. When thermodynamic systems interact with the environment, there are only two ways to transfer energy: heat release and work. The law says that in order to increase their internal energy, natural systems create the most favorable conditions - they do not take "duties". All the work done without any loss can be converted into heat and replenish the internal energy of the system. But, if we do the opposite, i.e., we want to do work at the expense of the internal energy reserves of the system, i.e., do work through heat, we must pay. All heat cannot be converted into work. Any heat engine (technical device or natural mechanism) has a refrigerator, which, like a tax inspector, collects duties. Thus, the law states that you can't live for free. Even the most general analysis of this truth shows that we live in debt, because we pay less than the real value of the goods. But, as you know, the growth of debt leads to bankruptcy.

The concept of law is interpreted by most methodologists in the sense of an unambiguous causal relationship. A wider interpretation of the concept of law as a limitation of diversity is given by cybernetics, and it is more suitable for social ecology, which reveals the fundamental limitations of human activity. It would be absurd to put forward as a gravitational imperative that a person should not jump from a great height, since death is inevitable in this case. But the adaptive capabilities of the biosphere, which make it possible to compensate for violations of ecological patterns up to a certain threshold, make ecological imperatives necessary. The main one can be formulated as follows: the transformation of nature must correspond to its possibilities of adaptation.

One way to formulate socio-ecological patterns is to transfer them from sociology and ecology. For example, as the basic law of social ecology, the law of the correspondence of productive forces and production relations to the state of the natural environment is proposed, which is a modification of one of the laws of political economy. The laws of social ecology, proposed on the basis of the study of ecosystems, we will consider after getting acquainted with the ecology.

The formation of social ecology as a science

In order to better present the subject of social ecology, one should consider the process of its emergence and formation as an independent branch of scientific knowledge. In fact, the emergence and subsequent development of social ecology were natural consequence the ever-increasing interest of representatives of various humanitarian disciplines - sociology, economics, political science, psychology, etc., - to the problems of interaction between man and the environment.

The term “social ecology” owes its appearance to American researchers, representatives of the Chicago School of Social Psychologists ¾ R. Park and E. Burges, who first used it in his work on the theory of population behavior in an urban environment in 1921. The authors used it as a synonym for the concept of "human ecology". The concept of “social ecology” was intended to emphasize that in this context we are talking not about a biological, but about a social phenomenon, which, however, also has biological characteristics.

In our country, by the end of the 1970s, conditions had also developed for separating social and environmental issues into an independent area of ​​interdisciplinary research. A significant contribution to the development of domestic social ecology was made by , and etc.

One of the most important problems facing researchers at the present stage of the formation of social ecology is the development of a unified approach to understanding its subject. Despite the obvious progress made in the study of various aspects of the relationship between man, society and nature, as well as a significant number of publications on social and environmental issues that have appeared in the last two or three decades in our country and abroad, on the issue of what exactly this branch of scientific knowledge studies, there are still different opinions. In the school reference book "Ecology" two options for defining social ecology are given: in the narrow sense, it is understood as the science of "the interaction of human society with the natural environment",

and in a broad sense, the science "about the interaction of an individual and human society with natural, social and cultural environments." It is quite obvious that in each of the presented cases of interpretation we are talking about different sciences that claim the right to be called “social ecology”. No less revealing is the comparison between the definitions of social ecology and human ecology. According to the same source, the latter is defined as: “1) the science of the interaction of human society with nature; 2) ecology of the human personality; 3) the ecology of human populations, including the doctrine of ethnic groups. One can clearly see the almost complete identity of the definition of social ecology, understood "in the narrow sense", and the first version of the interpretation of human ecology. The desire for the actual identification of these two branches of scientific knowledge, indeed, is still characteristic of foreign science, but it is quite often subjected to well-reasoned criticism by domestic scientists. , in particular, pointing to the expediency of breeding social ecology and human ecology, limits the subject of the latter to consideration of the socio-hygienic and medical-genetic aspects of the relationship between man, society and nature. A similar interpretation of the subject of human ecology is in solidarity, and some other researchers, but categorically disagree, and, according to which, this discipline covers a much wider range of issues of interaction between the anthroposystem (considered at all levels of its organization ¾ from the individual to humanity as a whole) with biosphere, as well as with the internal biosocial organization of human society. It is easy to see that such an interpretation of the subject of human ecology actually equates it with social ecology, understood in a broad sense. This situation is largely due to the fact that at present there has been a steady trend of convergence of these two disciplines, when there is an interpenetration of the subjects of the two sciences and their mutual enrichment through the joint use of the empirical material accumulated in each of them, as well as methods and technologies of socio-ecological and anthropoecological research.

Today, an increasing number of researchers tend to broaden the interpretation of the subject of social ecology. So, in his opinion, the subject of study of modern social ecology, understood by him as a private sociology, are specific links between man and his environment. Based on this, the main tasks of social ecology can be defined as follows: the study of the influence of the environment as a combination of natural and social factors on a person, as well as the influence of a person on the environment, perceived as the framework of human life.

A somewhat different, but not contradictory to the previous, interpretation of the subject of social ecology is given by and. From their point of view, social ecology as part of human ecology is a complex of scientific branches that study the relationship of social structures (starting with the family and other small social groups), as well as the relationship of a person with the natural and social environment of their habitat. This approach seems to us more correct, because it does not limit the subject of social ecology to the framework of sociology or any other separate humanitarian discipline, but emphasizes its interdisciplinary nature.

Some researchers, when defining the subject of social ecology, tend to emphasize the role that this young science is called upon to play in harmonizing the relationship of mankind with its environment. In his opinion, social ecology should first of all study the laws of society and nature, by which he understands the laws of self-regulation of the biosphere, implemented by man in his life.

The history of the emergence and development of ecological ideas of people is rooted in ancient times. Knowledge about the environment and the nature of relationships with it has acquired practical significance since the dawn of the development of the human species.

The process of formation of a labor and social organization primitive people, the development of their mental and collective activity created the basis for understanding not only the very fact of their existence, but also for an ever greater understanding of the dependence of this existence both on the conditions within their social organization and on external natural conditions. The experience of our distant ancestors was constantly enriched and passed down from generation to generation, helping a person in his daily struggle for life.

Approximately 750 thousand years ago people themselves learned how to make fire, equip primitive dwellings, mastered ways to protect themselves from bad weather and enemies. Thanks to this knowledge, man was able to significantly expand the area of ​​\u200b\u200bhis habitat.

Beginning with 8th millennium BC. e. in Asia Minor, various methods of cultivating the land and growing crops are beginning to be practiced. In the countries of Central Europe, this kind of agrarian revolution took place in 6 ¾ 2nd millennium BC. e. As a result, a large number of people moved to a settled way of life, in which there was an urgent need for deeper observations of the climate, in the ability to predict the change of seasons and weather changes. By the same time, people discovered the dependence of weather phenomena on astronomical cycles.

Of particular interest are the thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome showed to the questions of the origin and development of life on Earth, as well as to the identification of relationships between objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. Thus, the ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Anaxagoras (500¾428 BC e.) put forward one of the first theories of the origin of the world known at that time and the living creatures inhabiting it.

Ancient Greek philosopher and physician Empedocles (c. 487¾ ok. 424 BC e.) paid more attention to the description of the very process of the emergence and subsequent development of earthly life.

Aristotle (384 ¾322 BC e.) created the first of the known classifications of animals, and also laid the foundations for descriptive and comparative anatomy. Defending the idea of ​​the unity of nature, he argued that all more perfect species of animals and plants descended from less perfect ones, and those, in turn, trace their lineage from the most primitive organisms that once arose by spontaneous generation. Aristotle considered the complication of organisms to be the result of their internal desire for self-improvement.

One of the main problems that occupied the minds of ancient thinkers was the problem of the relationship between nature and man. The study of various aspects of their interaction was the subject of scientific interests of the ancient Greek researchers Herodotus, Hippocrates, Plato, Eratosthenes and others.

Peruvian German philosopher and theologian Albert of Bolstedt (Albert the Great)(1206¾1280) belongs to several natural science treatises. The works "On Alchemy" and "On Metals and Minerals" contain statements about the dependence of climate on the geographical latitude of the place and its position above sea level, as well as on the relationship between the inclination of the sun's rays and the heating of the soil.

English philosopher and naturalist Roger Bacon(1214-1294) argued that all organic bodies are, in their composition, various combinations of the same elements and liquids that make up inorganic bodies.

The advent of the Renaissance is inextricably linked with the name of the famous Italian painter, sculptor, architect, scientist and engineer. Leonardo yes Vinci(1452¾1519). He considered the main task of science to establish the laws of natural phenomena, based on the principle of their causal, necessary connection.

The end of the XV ¾ the beginning of the XVI century. rightly bears the name of the era of the Great geographical discoveries. In 1492 the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus discovered America. In 1498 the Portuguese Vasco da Gama rounded Africa and reached India by sea. In 1516(17?) Portuguese travelers first reached China by sea. And in 1521, the Spanish navigators, led by Ferdinand Magellan made the first trip around the world. Rounding South America, they reached East Asia, after which they returned to Spain. These journeys were an important step in expanding knowledge about the Earth.

Giordano Bruno(1548¾1600) made a significant contribution to the development of the teachings of Copernicus, as well as to freeing him from shortcomings and limitations.

The onset of a fundamentally new stage in the development of science is traditionally associated with the name of a philosopher and logician. Francis Bacon(1561¾1626), who developed inductive and experimental methods of scientific research. He proclaimed the main goal of science to increase the power of man over nature.

At the end of the XVI century. Dutch inventor Zachary Jansen(lived in the 16th century) created the first microscope, which makes it possible to obtain images of small objects, enlarged with glass lenses. English naturalist Robert Hooke(1635¾1703) significantly improved the microscope (his device gave a 40-fold increase), with which he was the first to observe plant cells, and also studied the structure of some minerals.

French naturalist Georges Buffon(1707¾1788), author of the 36-volume Natural History, expressed thoughts about the unity of the animal and plant worlds, about their vital activity, distribution and connection with the environment, defended the idea of ​​species change under the influence of environmental conditions.

major event in the 18th century. was the emergence of the evolutionary concept of the French naturalist Jean Baptiste Lamarck(1744¾1829), according to which the main reason for the development of organisms from lower to higher forms is the desire inherent in living nature to improve the organization, as well as the influence of various external conditions on them.

A special role in the development of ecology was played by the works of the English naturalist Charles Darwin(1809¾1882), who created the theory of the origin of species through natural selection.

In 1866 a German evolutionary zoologist Ernst Haeckel(1834¾1919) in his work "General Morphology of Organisms" proposed to call the entire range of issues related to the problem of the struggle for existence and the influence of a complex of physical and biotic conditions on living beings by the term "ecology".

Human evolution and ecology

Long before individual areas of environmental research gained independence, there was an obvious trend towards a gradual enlargement of the objects of environmental study. If initially they were single individuals, their groups, specific biological species, etc., then over time they began to be supplemented by large natural complexes, such as "biocenosis", the concept of which was formulated by a German zoologist and hydrobiologist

K. Möbius back in 1877 (the new term was intended to refer to the totality of plants, animals and microorganisms inhabiting a relatively homogeneous living space). Shortly before this, in 1875, an Austrian geologist E. Suess To designate a "film of life" on the surface of the Earth, he proposed the concept of "biosphere". The Russian, Soviet scientist significantly expanded and concretized this concept in his book "Biosphere", which was published in 1926. In 1935, an English botanist A. Tansley introduced the concept ecological system» (ecosystem). And in 1940, the Soviet botanist and geographer introduced the term "biogeocenosis", which he proposed to designate the elementary unit of the biosphere. Naturally, the study of such large-scale complex formations required the unification of the research efforts of representatives of different "special" ecologies, which, in turn, would be practically impossible without harmonizing their scientific categorical apparatus, as well as without developing common approaches to organizing the research process itself. Actually, it is precisely this need that owes its appearance to ecology as a single science, integrating in itself the particular subject ecologies that developed earlier relatively independently of each other. The result of their reunification was the formation of a "big ecology" (in terms) or "macroecology" (in terms of and), which today includes the following main sections in its structure:

General ecology;

Human ecology (including social ecology);

Applied Ecology.

The structure of each of these sections and the range of problems considered in each of them are shown in Fig. 1. It well illustrates the fact that modern ecology is a complex science that solves an extremely wide range of problems that are extremely relevant at the present stage of the development of society. According to the succinct definition of one of the largest modern environmentalists Eugene Odum, "ecology¾ this is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge, the science of the structure of multi-level systems in nature, society, their interconnection.

The place of social ecology in the system of sciences

Social ecology is a new scientific direction at the intersection of sociology, ecology, philosophy, science, technology and other branches of culture, with each of which it is in close contact. Schematically, this can be expressed as follows:

Many new names of sciences have been proposed, the subject of which is the study of the relationship between man and the natural environment in their entirety: natural sociology, noology, noogenics, global ecology, social ecology, human ecology, socio-economic ecology, modern ecology. Big ecology, etc. At the present time, one can speak more or less confidently about three directions.

Firstly, we are talking about the study of the relationship of society with the natural environment at the global level, on a planetary scale, in other words, the relationship of humanity as a whole with the Earth's biosphere. The specific scientific basis for research in this area is Vernadsky's theory of the biosphere. This direction can be called global ecology. In 1977, the monograph "Global Ecology" was published. It should be noted that, in accordance with his scientific interests, Budyko paid primary attention to the climatic aspects of the global environmental problem, although such topics as the amount of resources of our planet, global indicators of environmental pollution, global circulations are no less important. chemical elements in their interaction, the influence of space on the Earth, the state of the ozone shield in the atmosphere, the functioning of the Earth as a whole, etc. Research in this direction implies, of course, intensive international cooperation.

The second direction of research into the relationship of society with the natural environment will be research from the point of view of understanding a person as a social being. Human relations to the social and natural environment correlate with each other. "The limited relationship of people to nature determines their limited relationship to each other" and their limited relationship to each other - their limited relationship to nature "(K. Marx, F. Engels. Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 3, 29) In order to separate this trend, which studies the attitude of various social groups and classes to the natural environment and the structure of their relationships, determined by the attitude to the natural environment, from the subject of global ecology, we can call it social ecology in the narrow sense. In this case, social ecology, in contrast to global ecology, is closer to the humanities than to the natural sciences.The need for such research is enormous, and they are still carried out on a very limited scale.

Finally, the third scientific direction can be considered human ecology. Its subject, which does not coincide with the subjects of global ecology and social ecology in the narrow sense, would be a system of relationships with the natural environment of a person as an individual. This direction is closer to medicine than social and global ecology. By definition, "human ecology is a scientific direction that studies the patterns of interaction, the problems of purposeful management of the preservation and development of the health of the population, the improvement of the species Homo sapiens. The task of human ecology is to develop forecasts of possible changes in the characteristics of human (population) health under the influence of changes in the external environment and development of scientifically based correction standards in the relevant components of life support systems ... Most Western authors also distinguish between the concepts of social or human ecology (ecology of human society) and ecology of man (human ecology). the process of "entry" of the natural environment into the relationship with society as a dependent and controlled subsystem within the framework of the "nature-society" system. The second term is used to name a science that focuses on the person himself, as "biol ogical unit" (Issues of socioecology. Lvov, 1987. p. 32-33).

"Human ecology includes genetic-anatomical-physiological and medical-biological blocks that are absent in social ecology. In the latter, according to historical traditions, it is necessary to include significant sections of sociology and social psychology that are not included in the narrow understanding of human ecology" (ibid., p. 195).

Of course, the three scientific directions noted are far from enough. The approach to the natural environment as a whole, which is necessary for the successful solution of an environmental problem, involves the synthesis of knowledge, which is seen in the formation of transitional directions from them to ecology in various existing sciences.

Environmental issues are increasingly included in the social sciences. The development of social ecology is closely connected with the trends in the sociologization and humanization of science (natural science, in the first place), just as the integration of rapidly differentiating disciplines of the ecological cycle with each other and with other sciences is carried out in line with the general trends towards synthesis in the development of modern science.

Practice has a twofold impact on the scientific understanding of environmental problems. The point here, on the one hand, is that transformative activity requires an increase in the theoretical level of research into the system "man - natural environment" and an increase in the predictive power of these studies. On the other hand, it is the practical activity of man that provides direct assistance to scientific research. Knowledge of cause-and-effect relationships in nature can advance as it is transformed. The larger projects for the reconstruction of the natural environment are carried out, the more data penetrates into the sciences about the natural environment, the deeper the cause-and-effect relationships in the natural environment can be identified and, ultimately, the theoretical level of research into the relationship of society with the natural environment becomes higher.

The theoretical potential of the sciences studying the natural environment has grown markedly in recent years, which leads to the fact that "now all the sciences about the Earth in one way or another are moving from descriptions and the simplest qualitative analysis
observational materials for the development of quantitative theories built on a physical and mathematical basis" (E.K. Fedorov. Interaction of society and nature. L., 1972, p. 63).

Formerly a descriptive science - geography - on the basis of establishing closer contact between its individual branches (climatology, geomorphology, soil science, etc.) and improving its methodological arsenal (mathematization, using the methodology of physical and chemical sciences, etc.) becomes constructive geography, focused not only and not so much on the study of the functioning of the geographical environment, regardless of man, but on the theoretical understanding of the prospects for the transformation of our planet. Similar changes are taking place in other sciences that study certain aspects, aspects, etc. of the relationship between man and the natural environment.

Since social ecology is a new emerging discipline in the process of rapid development, its subject can only be outlined, not clearly defined. This is characteristic of every emerging field of knowledge, social ecology is no exception. We will understand social ecology as a scientific direction that combines what is included in social ecology in the narrow sense, in global ecology and in human ecology. In other words, we will understand social ecology as a scientific discipline that studies the relationship between man and nature in their complex. This will be the subject of social ecology, although it may not be definitively established.

Methods of social ecology

A more complicated situation occurs with the definition of the method of social ecology. Since social ecology is a transitional science between the natural and the humanities, insofar as in its methodology it must use the methods of both the natural and human sciences, as well as those methodologies that represent the unity of the natural science and humanitarian approaches (the first is called pomological, the second is ideographic).

As for general scientific methods, familiarization with the history of social ecology shows that at the first stage, the method of observation (monitoring) was mainly used, and the modeling method came to the fore in the second place. Modeling is a way of long-term and complex vision of the world. In its modern understanding, this is a universal procedure for comprehending and transforming the world. Generally speaking, each person, on the basis of his life experience and knowledge, builds certain models of reality. Subsequent experience and knowledge confirm this model or contribute to its change and refinement. A model is simply an ordered set of assumptions about a complex system. It is an attempt to understand some complex aspect of an infinitely varied world by choosing from accumulated ideas and experience a set of observations applicable to the problem under consideration.

The authors of The Limits to Growth describe the global modeling methodology as follows. First, we made a list of important causal relationships between variables and outlined the feedback structure. We then consulted the literature and consulted with experts in many areas related to these studies - demographers, economists, agronomists, nutritionists, geologists, environmentalists, etc. Our goal at this stage was to find the most common a structure that would reflect the main relationships between the five levels. Further development of this basic structure on the basis of other more detailed data can be carried out after the system itself is understood in its elementary form. We then quantified each relationship as accurately as possible, using global data if available, and representative local data if no global measurements were made. With the help of a computer, we determined the dependence of the simultaneous action of all these connections in time. We then tested the effects of quantitative changes in our underlying assumptions to find the most critical determinants of the system's behavior. There is no one "hard" world model. The model, as soon as it emerges, is constantly criticized and updated with data as we begin to understand it better. This model uses the most important relationships between population, food, capital investment, depreciation, resources, and output. These dependencies are the same all over the world. Our technique is to make several assumptions about the relationships between the parameters, and then check them on the computer. The model contains dynamic statements only about the physical aspects of human activity. It assumes that the nature of social variables - the distribution of income, the regulation of family size, the choice between industrial goods, services and food - will remain the same in the future as it has been throughout the modern history of world development. Since it is difficult to guess what new forms of human behavior should be expected, we did not try to account for these changes in the model. The value of our model is determined only by the point on each of the graphs, which corresponds to the cessation of growth and the beginning of the catastrophe.

Within the framework of the general method of global modeling, various particular methods were used. Thus, the Meadows group applied the principles of system dynamics, which assume that the state of systems is completely described by a small set of quantities characterizing different levels of consideration, and its evolution in time - by differential equations of the 1st order, containing the rates of change of these quantities, called fluxes, which depend only on time and the level values ​​themselves, but not on the rate of their changes. System dynamics deals only with exponential growth and equilibrium.

Methodological potential of the theory hierarchical systems, applied by Mesarovic and Pestel, is much wider, allowing you to create multilevel models. The input-output method, developed and used in global modeling by V. Leontiev, involves the study of structural relationships in the economy in conditions where "a multitude of apparently unrelated, in fact interdependent flows of production, distribution, consumption and investment constantly influence each other , and, ultimately, are determined by a number of basic characteristics of the system "(V. Leontiev. Studies of the structure of the American economy.

The input-output method represents reality in the form of a chessboard (matrix) reflecting the structure of interbranch flows, the field of production, exchange and consumption. The method itself is already a kind of representation of reality, and thus the chosen methodology turns out to be essentially connected with the content aspect.

A real system can also be used as a model. Thus, agrocenoses can be considered as an experimental model of biocenosis. More generally, all nature-transforming human activity is a simulation that accelerates the formation of a theory, but it should be treated as a model, given the risk that this activity entails. In a transformative aspect, modeling contributes to optimization, i.e., the choice of the best ways to transform the natural environment /

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCERUSSIA

federal state budgetary educational institution higher professional education

"RUSSIANSTATEHUMANITARIANUNIVERSITY"(RGGU)

INSTITUTE OF ECONOMY, MANAGEMENT AND LAW

MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT

Essay on ecology

social ecology

2nd year students

full-time education

Potkina Tatyana Nikolaevna

Moscow 2012

Introduction

1. Social ecology, its subject

1.1 Social ecology definitions

1.2 Subject matter

1.3 The problem of developing a common understanding of the approach to understanding the subject of social ecology

1.4 Principles of social ecology

2. Stages of development of social ecology

2.1 First stage

2.2 Second stage

2.3 Third stage

3. Environmental education

3.1 The essence of environmental education

3.2 Three components of environmental education

3.3 The main directions of environmental education

4. Technical process as a source of social and environmental problems

4.1 Conflict of technology and ecology

4.2 Socio-ecological problems of our time

4.3 Ecological content of scientific and technological revolution

Conclusion

List of source and references

Introduction

In the 1960s and 1970s, it became obvious that the range of problems of modern ecology had expanded enormously, that it had long been beyond the scope of traditional biological science - ecology, which was first mentioned back in 1868 by the German biologist E. Haeckel in the book "Natural history of origin. It does not fit, if only because the environmental tension begins in the field of technology. Therefore, both technology and technical sciences are directly related to the environmental problem. But the socio-economic principle is an even broader position, which allows a large-scale and comprehensive outline of the true range of interests and problems of modern ecology.

The priority name was different - social ecology. This term, introduced into scientific circulation by Soviet philosophers, has become quite widespread, both in the USSR - Russia, and in the West. It is understood as an interdisciplinary complex of environmental management, the principles of organizing human activity, taking into account objective environmental laws.

The concept of social ecology is closely related to the essence of the teachings of V. I. Vernadsky and T. de Chardin about the noosphere - the sphere of the mind - the highest stage in the development of the biosphere, associated with the emergence and formation of civilized mankind in it. It is the inseparability of the latter from the biosphere that points, according to Vernadsky, to the main goal in building the noosphere. The task is to preserve the type of biosphere in which man originated and can exist as a species.

So, the question of the term "social ecology" is more or less clear. However, its content and structure continue to be debated. It is clear that social ecology must incorporate the relevant parts of the natural, social and technical sciences. According to this principle, the scheme of G. A. Bachinsky, an ecologist from Lvov, was built.

The links between geography and ecology are traditional and diverse. In the 1920s and 1930s, American geographers called geography human ecology, in the 1930s the famous German geographer K. Troll introduced the term "geoecology" and already in the 1960s and 1970s it became widespread in the West. Finally, in the 70s, Academician V. B. Sochava wrote about "human ecology as a key concept in geography." The term "geoecology" can be explained as follows: geographers deal with the structure and interaction of two main systems: ecological (connecting man and the environment) and spatial (connecting one area to another through a complex volume of flows). The synthesis of these two approaches is the essence of geoecology. Any global problem cannot be solved without its preliminary “regionalization”, without a detailed consideration of the state and regional situation, finding specific ways to solve it in a given place and in given conditions (natural, economic, social). It is no coincidence that the first global models (D. Meadows and others) were criticized precisely for their “total” globality, for the lack of “regionalization”. However, for maximum generalization, identification of universal and most pressing environmental problems, another approach is possible - a global one. The inseparable connection of such approaches is emphasized by the well-known slogan, widely used in the modern world - "think globally, act locally."

1. Social ecology, its subject, principles and issues

1 .1 Definitionssocialecology

Social ecology (or socioecology) is a complex of scientific disciplines that considers relationships in the "society - natural environment" system and develops scientific foundations optimization of the human environment. The terminology in this area is not well established. From the point of view of some scientists, social ecology should study the relationship of society with the geographical, social and cultural environment; according to the position of others, this is a section of human ecology that considers the relationship of social groups of society with nature, etc. At the same time, in some cases, socioecology includes human ecology, in others, socioecology itself is part of human ecology. Nevertheless, social ecology is a scientific direction recognized all over the world. It achieved a similar status in the system of sciences due to the elimination of biological determinism in the definition of its subject. This was facilitated by a change in the understanding that ecology is not only a natural but also a human science.

Social ecology analyzes the attitude of a person in its inherent humanistic horizon from the point of view of its correspondence to the historical needs of human development, from the perspective of cultural justification and perspective, through a theoretical comprehension of the world in its general definitions, which express the measure of the historical unity of man and nature. Any scientist thinks about the main concepts of the problem of interaction between society and nature through the prism of his science. The conceptual and categorical apparatus of socioecology is being formed, developed and improved. This process is diverse and covers all aspects of socioecology, not only objectively, but also subjectively, reflecting scientific creativity in a peculiar way and influencing the evolution of scientific interests and searches of both individual scientists and entire teams.

1 .2 Subjectstudysocialecology

The subject of the study of social ecology is the identification of patterns of development of this system, value-worldview, socio-cultural, legal and other prerequisites and conditions for its sustainable development. That is, the subject of social ecology is the relationship in the system "society-man-technology-environment".

In this system, all elements and subsystems are homogeneous, and the connections between them determine its immutability and structure. The object of social ecology is the "society-nature" system.

1 .3 Problemworkingsunifiedapproachtounderstandingsubjectsocialecology

One of the most important problems facing researchers at the present stage of the formation of social ecology is the development of a unified approach to understanding its subject. Despite the obvious progress made in the study of various aspects of the relationship between man, society and nature, as well as a significant number of publications on social and environmental issues that have appeared in the last two or three decades in our country and abroad, on the issue of what exactly this branch of scientific knowledge studies, there are still different opinions.

In the school reference book "Ecology" A.P. Oshmarin and V.I. Oshmarina gives two options for defining social ecology: in the narrow sense, it is understood as the science of “the interaction of human society with the natural environment”, and in the broadest sense, the science of “the interaction of an individual and human society with natural, social and cultural environments”. It is quite obvious that in each of the presented cases of interpretation we are talking about different sciences that claim the right to be called “social ecology”. No less revealing is the comparison between the definitions of social ecology and human ecology. According to the same source, the latter is defined as: “1) the science of the interaction of human society with nature; 2) ecology of the human personality; 3) the ecology of human populations, including the doctrine of ethnic groups. One can clearly see the almost complete identity of the definition of social ecology, understood "in the narrow sense", and the first version of the interpretation of human ecology.

The desire for the actual identification of these two branches of scientific knowledge, indeed, is still characteristic of foreign science, but it is quite often subjected to well-reasoned criticism by domestic scientists. S. N. Solomina, in particular, pointing out the expediency of breeding social ecology and human ecology, limits the subject of the latter to consideration of the socio-hygienic and medical-genetic aspects of the relationship between man, society and nature. With a similar interpretation of the subject of human ecology, V.A. Bukhvalov, L.V. Bogdanova and some other researchers, but strongly disagree with N.A. Agadzhanyan, V.P. Kaznacheev and N.F. Reimers, according to whom this discipline covers a much wider range of issues of the interaction of the anthroposystem (considered at all levels of its organization from the individual to humanity as a whole) with the biosphere, as well as with the internal biosocial organization of human society. It is easy to see that such an interpretation of the subject of human ecology actually equates it with social ecology, understood in a broad sense. This situation is largely due to the fact that at present there has been a steady trend of convergence of these two disciplines, when there is an interpenetration of the subjects of the two sciences and their mutual enrichment through the joint use of the empirical material accumulated in each of them, as well as methods and technologies of socio-ecological and anthropoecological research.

Today, an increasing number of researchers tend to broaden the interpretation of the subject of social ecology. So, according to D.Zh. Markovich, the subject of study of modern social ecology, understood by him as a particular sociology, is the specific relationship between a person and his environment. Based on this, the main tasks of social ecology can be defined as follows: the study of the influence of the environment as a combination of natural and social factors on a person, as well as the influence of a person on the environment, perceived as the framework of human life.

A somewhat different, but not contradictory, interpretation of the subject of social ecology is given by T.A. Akimov and V.V. Haskin. From their point of view, social ecology as part of human ecology is a complex of scientific branches that study the relationship of social structures (starting with the family and other small social groups), as well as the relationship of man with the natural and social environment of their habitat. This approach seems to us more correct, because it does not limit the subject of social ecology to the framework of sociology or any other separate humanitarian discipline, but emphasizes its interdisciplinary nature.

Some researchers, when defining the subject of social ecology, tend to emphasize the role that this young science is called upon to play in harmonizing the relationship of mankind with its environment. According to E. V. Girusov, social ecology should study, first of all, the laws of society and nature, by which he understands the laws of self-regulation of the biosphere, implemented by man in his life.

1 .4 Principlessocialecology

· Mankind, like any population, cannot grow indefinitely.

· Society in its development must take into account the measure of biospheric phenomena.

· The sustainable development of society depends on the timeliness of the transition to alternative resources and technologies.

Any transformative activity of society should be based on an environmental forecast

· Development of nature should not reduce the diversity of the biosphere and worsen the quality of life of people.

· The sustainable development of civilization depends on the moral qualities of people.

· Everyone is responsible for their actions before the future.

We must think globally, act locally.

· The unity of nature obliges humanity to cooperate.

2. Stages of social ecology development

2 .1 The firststage

The population explosion and the scientific and technological revolution have led to a colossal increase in the consumption of natural resources. Thus, at present, 3.5 billion tons of oil and 4.5 billion tons of hard and brown coal are produced annually in the world. At such a rate of consumption, it became obvious that many natural resources would be depleted in the near future. At the same time, the waste of giant industries began to pollute the environment more and more, destroying the health of the population. In all industrialized countries, cancerous, chronic pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases are widespread. Scientists were the first to sound the alarm.

The starting point of modern social ecology can be called the book by R. Carson “Silent Spring”, published in 1961, dedicated to the negative environmental consequences of the use of DDT. The prehistory of writing this work is very revealing. The transition to growing monocultures required the use of pesticides to combat the so-called agricultural pests. The order received by the chemists was fulfilled and a potent drug with the desired properties was synthesized. The author of the invention, the Swiss scientist Müller, received the Nobel Prize in 1947, but after a very short time it became clear that DDT affects not only harmful species, but, having the ability to accumulate in living tissues, has a detrimental effect on all living things, including the human body. Freely moving over large areas and hardly decomposing, the drug was found even in the liver of penguins of Antarctica. With R. Carson's book, the stage of data accumulation on the negative environmental consequences of scientific and technological revolution began, which showed that an ecological crisis is taking place on our planet.

The first stage of social ecology can be called empirical, since the collection of empirical data obtained through observation prevailed. This line of environmental research subsequently led to global monitoring, i.e. monitoring and collecting data on the environmental situation on our entire planet.

Beginning in 1968, the Italian economist Aurelio Peccei began to annually gather in Rome major experts from different countries to discuss questions about the future of civilization. These meetings were called the Club of Rome. In the first reports to the Club of Rome, simulation mathematical methods developed by MIT professor Jay Forrester were successfully applied to the study of trends in the development of socio-natural global processes. Forrester used research methods developed and applied in the natural and technical sciences to study the processes of evolution, both in nature and in society, occurring on a global scale. On this basis, the concept of world dynamics was built. For the first time in a social forecast, components that can be called environmental were taken into account: the finite nature of mineral resources and the limited ability of natural complexes to absorb and neutralize the waste of human industrial activity.

If the previous forecasts, which took into account only traditional trends (growth in production, growth in consumption and population growth), were optimistic, taking into account environmental parameters immediately turned the global forecast into a pessimistic version, showing the inevitability of a downward trend in the development of society by the end of the first third of the 21st century due to the possibility of exhaustion of mineral resources and excessive pollution of the natural environment. Thus, for the first time in science, the problem of the possible end of civilization was raised not in the distant future, which was repeatedly warned by various prophets, but during a very specific period of time and for very specific and even prosaic reasons. There was a need for such a field of knowledge that would thoroughly investigate the discovered problem and find out the way to prevent the coming catastrophe.

2 .2 SecondthisP

In 1972, the book "Limits to Growth" was published, prepared by the group of D. Meadows, who created the first so-called "models of the world", which marked the beginning of the second model stage of social ecology. The special success of the book "The Limits to Growth" is determined by its futurological orientation and sensational conclusions, and by the fact that for the first time the material relating to the most diverse aspects of human activity was assembled into a formal model and studied with the help of a computer. In the "models of the world", the five main trends in world development - rapid population growth, accelerated industrial growth, the widespread zone of malnutrition, the depletion of irreplaceable resources and environmental pollution - were considered in conjunction with each other. The authors of "The Limits to Growth" proposed a cardinal solution to overcome the threat of an ecological catastrophe - to stabilize the population of the planet and at the same time the capital invested in production at a constant level. Such a state of “global equilibrium”, according to the Meadows group, does not mean stagnation, because human activity that does not require a large expenditure of irreplaceable resources and does not lead to environmental degradation (science, art, education, sports) can progress indefinitely. Supporters of "global balance" do not take into account, however, the fact that the growing technical power of man, increasing his ability to withstand natural disasters (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, sudden climate change, etc.), which he is not yet able to cope with, stimulated precisely by production goals, at least for the present.

The assumption that the government of all countries can be forced or persuaded to keep the population at a constant level is clearly unrealistic, and from this, among other things, already follows the impossibility of accepting the proposal to stabilize industrial and agricultural production. You can talk about the limits of growth in certain directions, but not about absolute limits. The task is to foresee the dangers of growth in any direction and to choose ways of flexible reorientation of development for the fullest possible implementation of the set goals.

2 . 3 Thirdstage

After the 1992 international conference on the problems of the planet Earth in Rio de Janeiro, which was attended by the heads of 179 states and at which for the first time the world community developed an agreed development strategy, we can talk about the beginning of the third global political stage of social ecology.

3. environmental education

3 .1 essenceecologicaleducation

Environmental education is a purposeful influence on a person at all stages of his life with the help of an expanded system of means and methods, which aims to form environmental consciousness, environmental culture, environmental behavior, environmental responsibility. The need to educate the members of society of certain attitudes of behavior in relation to nature arose in humanity at the earliest stages of its development.

One of the most important tasks of environmental education is the formation in nature users, each citizen and in society as a whole of persistent attitudes towards rational nature management, the ability to see beyond the solution of individual problems, the ecological consequences of interference in natural processes, the sense of responsibility to present and future generations for the influence of their own actions on the ability of nature to be the environment for human existence are distant.

Environmental education is a continuous process of study, upbringing, self-education, accumulation of experience and personal development, aimed at the formation of value orientations, norms of behavior and special knowledge regarding the preservation of the environment and nature management, implemented in environmentally competent activities. Very important for understanding the specifics of environmental education is the thesis that it should not act only as a system of prohibitions on certain actions. In addition to calls that nature should be loved and protected, it is necessary to learn competent and professionally integrated environmental management.

3 .2 Threeconstituentsecologicaleducation

In a more detailed consideration in the process of environmental education, three relatively independent components, both in terms of methods and goals, can be distinguished: environmental education, environmental education and environmental education itself. They represent certain stages in the process of continuous environmental education in the broadest sense.

Environmental education is the first degree in environmental education. It is called upon to form the first, elementary knowledge about the peculiarities of the relationship between society and nature, about the suitability of the environment for human habitation, about the impact of human production activity on the world around.

Environmental education is a psychological and pedagogical process of influencing a person, the purpose of which is the formation of a theoretical level of environmental consciousness, which in a systematic way reflects the various aspects of the unity of the world, the laws of the dialectical unity of society and nature, certain knowledge and practical skills of rational nature management.

The goal of environmental education is to equip a person with knowledge in the field of natural, technical and social sciences, about the features of the interaction between society and nature, to develop in it the ability to understand and evaluate specific actions and situations.

The highest level is ecological education - a psychological and pedagogical process, the purpose of which is to form in an individual not only scientific knowledge, but also certain beliefs, moral principles that determine his life position and behavior in the field of environmental protection and the rational use of natural resources, ecological culture individual citizens and society as a whole, in the process of environmental education, a certain system of environmental values ​​is formed, which will determine the thrifty attitude of man to nature, will encourage it to solve the problem of the global environmental crisis. Firstly, it provides not only the transfer of knowledge, but also the formation of beliefs, the readiness of the individual for specific actions, and secondly, it includes knowledge and the ability to carry out rational nature management along with nature protection.

The specificity of environmental education lies in the development of an ideological attitude to the complex, integral system "society-nature", the attitude of the individual to which is impossible without effective, direct and indirect participation in its functioning. The complex nature of environmental education emerges from the specifics of the object of reflection of environmental consciousness at the level of both public and personal, its functioning.

The main principle of environmental education is the principle of the material unity of the world, which organically includes the problem of socio-ecological education in the system of forming a scientific worldview. Among others, one can also distinguish the principles of complexity, continuity, patriotism, a combination of personal and common interests.

3 .3 Maindirectionsecologicaleducation

In the system of environmental education, the following main areas can be distinguished:

1. Political. Its important methodological principle is the position on the correspondence between the relations between people prevailing in society and the attitude towards nature that prevails in it, which emerges from the basic law of social ecology. This direction contributes to the formation of environmental consciousness and environmental culture and a scientific approach to assessing both specific environmental problems in different socio-political systems, and the nature of these systems themselves.

2. Naturally scientific. It is based on scientific understanding inseparable unity of society and nature. Society is inextricably linked with nature, both in its origin and existence. Socially, society is connected with nature through production, without which it cannot exist. Nature creates potential conditions for man to satisfy his material and spiritual needs. These needs are realized only through expedient activity. In the process of production, a person creates his own flows of matter and energy, which disorganized the cycles of energy and matter exchange that exist in nature and have been polished for billions of years. Thus, there is a violation of the mechanisms of self-reproduction of the main qualitative parameters of the biosphere, those objective conditions that ensure the existence of man as a biological being. These violations are generated by the limited knowledge available about the patterns of development of nature, the inability to take into account all the possible consequences of human activity.

3. Legal. Ecological knowledge, developing into conviction and action, should be closely combined with the active participation of the individual in observing by himself and others the norms of environmental legislation, which should reflect general public interests. The state, as the main mechanism for regulating and coordinating the common interests of the individual and society in their relationship with nature, has the exclusive right not only to create environmental legislation, but also to enforce actions against individuals or their groups aimed at observing these laws.

This direction is closely connected with the formation of environmental responsibility, and not only legal, but also moral.

4. Morally aesthetic. The modern ecological situation requires from mankind a new moral orientation in relations with nature, a revision of certain norms of human behavior in the natural environment. In societies that are at the industrial stage of development, morality directs nature users to the predatory exploitation of natural resources, to meet the needs of members of society, regardless of the environmental consequences of production activities. During the transition to the industrial stage of development, when there is a qualitative leap in the productive forces, the formation of an ecological imperative, which should become the norm of moral regulation of specific ways of developing nature, is one of the most urgent requirements.

5. Worldview. Environmental education cannot be effective without forming the basis of the worldview in an appropriate way. In order for an individual to take part in a real rank in eliminating the threat of an ecological crisis, for this to become his internal need, his ability to give scientifically sound answers to the question of the essence of the world, nature, man, the goals and limits of human knowledge and the transformation of the surrounding natural world, about the meaning of human existence.

The main goal of environmental education is the formation of an environmental culture, which should include an environmental imperative, a system of environmental values ​​and environmental responsibility.

4. Technical process as a source of social and environmental problems

4 .1 Conflicttechnologyandecology

If our ancestors had limited their activity only to adapting to nature and appropriating its finished products, then they would never have left the animal state in which they were originally. Only in opposition to nature, in constant struggle with it and transformation in accordance with its needs and goals, could a creature be formed that has passed the path from animal to man. Man was not generated by nature alone, as is often claimed. The beginning of a person could only be given by such a not quite natural form of activity as labor, main feature which is the production by the subject of labor of some objects (products) with the help of other objects (tools). It was labor that became the basis of human evolution.

Labor activity, while giving man enormous advantages in the struggle for survival over other animals, at the same time put him in danger of becoming in time a force capable of destroying the natural environment of his own life.

It would be wrong to think that human-induced environmental crises became possible only with the advent of sophisticated technology and strong demographic growth. One of the most severe ecological crises took place already at the beginning of the Neolithic. Having learned to hunt animals well enough, especially large ones, people, by their actions, led to the disappearance of many of them, including mammoths. As a result, the food resources of many human communities were drastically reduced, and this, in turn, led to mass extinction. According to various estimates, the population then decreased by 8-10 times. It was a colossal ecological crisis that turned into a socio-ecological catastrophe. A way out of it was found on the paths of transition to agriculture, and then to cattle breeding, to a settled way of life. Thus, the ecological niche of the existence and development of mankind has significantly expanded, which was decisively promoted by the agrarian and handicraft revolution, which led to the emergence of qualitatively new tools of labor, which made it possible to multiply the impact of man on the natural environment. The era of "animal life" of man turned out to be completed, he began to "actively and purposefully intervene in natural processes, rebuild natural biogeochemical cycles."

Pollution of nature acquired significant dimensions and intensity only during the period of industrialization and urbanization, which led to significant civilizational changes and to a mismatch of economic and environmental development. This discrepancy has taken on dramatic proportions since the 1950s. of our century, when the rapid and hitherto unthinkable development of the productive forces caused such changes in nature that lead to the destruction of the biological prerequisites for the life of man and society. Man has created technologies that deny life forms in nature. The use of these technologies leads to an increase in entropy, a denial of life. The conflict between technology and ecology has its source in man himself, who is both a natural being and a bearer of technological development.

4 .2 Socio-environmentalProblemsmodernity

Environmental problems of our time in terms of their scale can be conditionally divided into local, regional and global ones and require different means and different scientific developments for their solution. An example of a local environmental problem is a plant that dumps its industrial waste into the river without treatment, which is harmful to human health. This is a violation of the law. The nature protection authorities or the public should fine such a plant through the courts and, under threat of closure, force it to build a sewage treatment plant. It does not require special science.

An example of regional environmental problems is the Kuzbass - a basin almost closed in the mountains, filled with gases from coke ovens and fumes from a metallurgical giant, or the drying up Aral Sea with a sharp deterioration in the environmental situation along its entire periphery, or high radioactivity of soils in areas adjacent to Chernobyl.

To solve such problems, scientific research is already needed. In the first case, the development of rational methods for the absorption of smoke and gas aerosols, in the second, accurate hydrological studies to develop recommendations for increasing the flow into the Aral Sea, in the third, the elucidation of the impact on the health of the population of prolonged exposure to low doses of radiation and the development of soil decontamination methods.

However anthropogenic impact on nature has reached such proportions that global problems have arisen that no one could even suspect a few decades ago. Atmospheric pollution is occurring at a rapid pace. So far, the main means of obtaining energy remains the combustion of combustible fuels, therefore, oxygen consumption increases every year, and carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, as well as a huge amount of soot, dust and harmful aerosols enter in its place.

The sharp warming of the climate that began in the second half of the 20th century is a reliable fact. The average temperature of the surface layer of air has increased by 0.7 ° C compared to 1956-1957, when the First International Geophysical Year was held. There is no warming at the equator, but the closer to the poles, the more noticeable it is. Beyond the Arctic Circle, it reaches 2°C. At the North Pole, the water under the ice has warmed by 1°C, and the ice cover has begun to melt from below4. Some scientists believe that warming is the result of burning a huge mass of fossil fuels and releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas, i.e. hinders the transfer of heat from the Earth's surface. Others, referring to climate change in historical time, consider the anthropogenic factor of climate warming negligible and attribute this phenomenon to increased solar activity.

No less complex is the environmental problem of the ozone layer. The depletion of the ozone layer is a much more dangerous reality for all life on Earth than the fall of some super-large meteorite. Ozone prevents dangerous cosmic radiation from reaching the Earth's surface. If not for ozone, these rays would destroy all life. Studies of the causes of the depletion of the ozone layer of the planet have not yet given definitive answers to all questions. The rapid growth of industry, accompanied by global pollution of the natural environment, has posed an unprecedentedly acute problem of raw materials. Of all types of resources, fresh water is in the first place in terms of the growth of demand for it and the increase in the deficit. 71% of the entire surface of the planet is occupied by water, but fresh water makes up only 2% of the total, and almost 80% of fresh water is in the Earth's ice cover. In most industrial areas, there is already a significant shortage of water, and its deficit is growing every year. In the future, the situation is also alarming with another natural resource that was previously considered inexhaustible - the oxygen of the atmosphere. When the products of photosynthesis of past eras - combustible fossils - are burned, free oxygen is bound into compounds.

4 .3 ecologicalcontentscientific and technicalrevolution

The basis for the interaction of the natural environment and human society in the process of production of material goods is the growth of mediation in the production relation of man to nature. Step by step, a person places between himself and nature, first the substance transformed with the help of his energy (tools of labor), then the energy transformed with the help of tools of labor and accumulated knowledge (steam engines, electrical installations, etc.) and, finally, more recently between by man and nature, the third major link of mediation arises - information transformed with the help of electronic computers. Thus, the development of civilization is ensured by the continuous expansion of the sphere of material production, which first embraces tools, then energy, and, finally, in recent times, information.

The first link of mediation (manufacturing of labor tools) is associated with a leap from the animal world to the social world, with the second (the use of power plants) - a leap into the highest form of class-antagonistic society, with the third (creation and use of information devices) is connected the conditionality of the transition to a society of qualitatively a new state in interpersonal relations, since for the first time there is the possibility of a sharp increase in people's free time for their full and harmonious development. In addition, the scientific and technological revolution necessitates a qualitatively new attitude to nature, since those contradictions between society and nature that previously existed in an implicit form are exacerbated to an extreme degree.

At the same time, the limitation on the part of the energy sources of labor, which remained natural, began to have a stronger effect. A contradiction arose between the new (artificial) means of processing matter and the old (natural) sources of energy. The search for ways to resolve the contradiction that arose led to the discovery and use of artificial energy sources. But the solution of the energy problem itself gave rise to a new contradiction between the artificial ways of processing matter and obtaining energy, on the one hand, and the natural (with the help of the nervous system) way of processing information, on the other. The search for ways to remove this limitation was intensified, and the problem was solved with the invention of computing machines. Now, finally, all three natural factors (substance, energy, information) have been covered by artificial means of their use by man. Thus, all natural restrictions on the development of production, inherent in this process, were removed.

Conclusion

Social ecology studies the structure, features and tendencies of the functioning of objects of a special kind, objects of the so-called "second nature", i.e. objects of an artificially created subject environment interacting with the natural environment. It is the existence of a "second nature" in the vast majority of cases that gives rise to environmental problems that arise at the intersection of ecological and social systems. These problems, socioecological in their essence, act as the object of socioecological research.

Social ecology as a science has its own specific tasks and functions. Its main objectives are: the study of the relationship between human communities and the surrounding geographic-spatial, social and cultural environment, the direct and secondary impact of production activities on the composition and properties of the environment. Social ecology considers the Earth's biosphere as an ecological niche of mankind, linking the environment and human activities into a single system "nature-society", reveals the human impact on the balance of natural ecosystems, studies the management and rationalization of the relationship between man and nature. The task of social ecology as a science is also to offer such effective ways of influencing the environment that would not only prevent catastrophic consequences, but also make it possible to significantly improve the biological and social conditions for the development of man and all life on Earth.

By studying the causes of degradation of the human environment and measures to protect and improve it, social ecology should contribute to expanding the scope of human freedom by creating more humane relations both to nature and to other people.

List of sources and literature

1. Bganba, V.R. Social ecology: textbook / V.R. Bganba - M.: Higher school, 2004. - 310 p.

2. Gorelov Anatoly Alekseevich. Social ecology / A. A. Gorelov. - M.: Mosk. Lyceum, 2005. - 406 p.

3. Malofeev, V.I. Social ecology: Textbook for universities / V.I. Malofeev - M .: "Dashkov and K", 2004.- 260 p.

4. Markov, Yu.G. Social ecology. Interaction between society and nature: Textbook / Yu.G.Markov - Novosibirsk: Siberian University Publishing House, 2004.- 544 p.

5. Sitarov, V.A. Social ecology: a textbook for students. higher ped. textbook institutions // V.A. Sitarov, V.V. Pustovoitov. - M.: Academy, 2000. - 280 p.

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social ecology - a scientific discipline that examines the relationship in the "society-nature" system, studying the interaction and interrelationships of human society with the natural environment (Nikolai Reimers).

But such a definition does not reflect the specifics of this science. Social ecology is currently being formed as a private independent science with a specific subject of study, namely:

The composition and characteristics of the interests of social strata and groups that exploit natural resources;

Perception of different social strata and groups of environmental problems and measures to regulate nature management;

Consideration and use in the practice of environmental measures of the characteristics and interests of social strata and groups

Thus, social ecology is the science of the interests of social groups in the field of nature management.

Types of social ecology.

Social ecology is divided into the following types:

Economic

Demographic

Urban

Futurological

Legal

Main tasks and problems

Main task social ecology is the study of the mechanisms of human impact on the environment and those changes in it that are the result of human activity.

Problems social ecology is basically reduced to three main groups:

on a planetary scale - a global forecast for the population and resources in conditions of intensive industrial development (global ecology) and determination of ways for the further development of civilization;

regional scale - the study of the state of individual ecosystems at the level of regions and districts (regional ecology);

microscale - the study of the main characteristics and parameters of urban living conditions (urban ecology or urban sociology).

Wednesday, human environment, its specificity and condition.

Under the habitat usually understand natural bodies and phenomena with which the organism (organisms) are in direct or indirect relationship. Separate elements of the environment to which organisms react with adaptive reactions (adaptations) are called factors.

Along with the term "habitat", the concepts "ecological environment", "habitat", "environment", "environment", "surrounding nature", etc. are also used. There are no clear differences between these terms, but some of them should stay. In particular, the recently popular term “environment” is understood, as a rule, as an environment that has been modified to some extent (in most cases, to a large extent) by man. Close in meaning to it are "technogenic environment", "anthropogenic environment", "industrial environment".

The natural environment, the surrounding nature is an environment that has not been changed by man or changed to a small extent. The term "habitat" is usually associated with the living environment of an organism or species in which the entire cycle of its development is carried out. In the "General Ecology" it is usually about the natural environment, the natural environment, habitats; in "Applied and Social Ecology" - about the environment. This term is often considered an unfortunate translation from the English environment, since there is no indication of the object that the environment surrounds.

The influence of the environment on organisms is usually assessed through individual factors (lat. making, producing). Under environmental factors refers to any element or condition of the environment to which organisms respond with adaptive reactions, or adaptations. Beyond adaptive reactions are lethal (fatal for organisms) values ​​of factors.

The specifics of the action of anthropogenic factors on organisms.

There are several specific features of the action of anthropogenic factors. The most important of them are the following:

1) the irregularity of action and, therefore, unpredictability for organisms, as well as the high intensity of changes, incommensurable with the adaptive capabilities of organisms;

2) practically unlimited possibilities of action on organisms, up to complete destruction, which is characteristic of natural factors and processes only in rare cases (natural disasters, cataclysms). Human impacts can be both targeted, such as competition with organisms called pests and weeds, and unintentional fishing, pollution, destruction of habitats, etc.;

3) being the result of the activity of living organisms (human), anthropogenic factors act not as biotic (regulating), but as specific (modifying). This specificity is manifested either through a change in the natural environment in a direction unfavorable for organisms (temperature, moisture, light, climate, etc.), or through the introduction of agents alien to organisms into the environment, united by the term "xenobiotics";

4) no species performs any actions to the detriment of itself. This feature is inherent only to a person endowed with reason. It is a person who has to fully receive negative results from a polluted and destroyed environment. Biological species simultaneously change and condition the environment; a person, as a rule, changes the environment in a direction unfavorable for himself and other beings;

5) a person has created a group of social factors that are the environment for the person himself. The effect of these factors on a person, as a rule, is no less significant than natural ones. An integral manifestation of the action of anthropogenic factors is a specific environment created by the influence of these factors.

Man, and to a large extent, other creatures currently live in an environment that is the result of anthropogenic factors. It differs from the classical environment, which was considered in general ecology in terms of the action of natural abiotic and biotic factors. A noticeable change in the human environment began when he moved from gathering to more active activities, such as hunting, and then the domestication of animals and the cultivation of plants. Since that time, the principle of "ecological boomerang" began to work: any impact on nature, which the latter could not assimilate, returned to man as a negative factor. Man more and more separated himself from nature and enclosed himself in the shell of his own created environment. The contact of man with the natural environment has been decreasing more and more.