Sociopolitical Ecology

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

   PDF

2. The Design of a Cognitive System for Generating Structural Models of Social Behavior Systems and Ecological Fields

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 1-21

3. Behavior as a Phenomenon

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 23-47

4. Structure and Structural Analysis

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 49-67

5. Systems and Systems Theory

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 69-90

6. Self-Referential Behavior Systems

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 91-115

7. Self-Referential Social Systems

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 117-132

8. Ecological Fields

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 133-165

9. Social Systems in the Context of Ecological Fields

   • Frederick L. Bates

   Pages 167-180

10. A Language for Constructing Structural Models of Social Networks within and among Self-Referential Systems

    • Frederick L. Bates

    Pages 181-206

11. Individual Actors and Social Systems

    • Frederick L. Bates

    Pages 207-226

12. An Overview of Sociopolitical Ecology

    • Frederick L. Bates

    Pages 227-240

13. Epilogue

    • Frederick L. Bates

    Pages 241-253

14. Back Matter

    Pages 255-272

    PDF

Sociopolitical Ecology introduces the concept of `ecological field' to replace that of `ecosystem' and extends the boundaries of self-referential systems to a new, more complex level of analysis. Ecological field refers to an overarching system that contains many self-referential (or autopoietic) systems that interact in a common space, with human beings placed squarely in the middle of all natural ecological networks. The focus of this fascinating study is the interlocking pattern of relations among human beings within an ecological field - what the author designates as `sociopolitical ecology'. The book argues that most societies are not self-contained systems, but rather ecological fields, that is complexes of several interacting systems.

• Design
• ecology
• ecosystem
• political ecology
• systems theory

`Bates has produced a book that is very nearly astonishing, and that is bound to be important.'
Contemporary Psychology, 43(9), 1998

• The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

  Frederick L. Bates

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