Unexpected Harmonies: Self-Organization in Liberal Modernity and Ecology

N/

Boundaries and Conflict Between Social and Ecological Emergent Orders: A Left-Hayekian Perspective

This paper will describe how feedback principles define boundaries of emergent processes within human society and the natural world. As such, these processes are theoretical simplifications from the larger more complex whole, for each order exists simultaneously with all the others. By initially separating them out, we can better explore how they interact with one another. To illustrate this approach the emergent social processes of the market, liberal democracy, and science will be specified based on their feedback generating principles, each of which includes certain abstract ethical principles. They will be contrasted with biologically based feedback generating principles which generate ecosystems. The lack of fit both within social systems and between these systems and natural ecosystems helps pinpoint several current ecological and social crises: first that social emergent processes are not in harmony with one another, and sometimes undermine one another rather than existing harmoniously, and second, that these systems collectively and individually are not in harmony with natural processes, and while stronger in the short run are dependent in the long run on the well being of natural processes. Social emergent processes are characterized by ethically “thin” principles that cannot be harmonized on their own with actions required to maintain a sustainable relationship with the natural world nor a social order amenable to the full complexity of values characterizing human life. However, the more complex emergent order of civil society, and institutions rooted within it, do hold open the possibility of establishing such relations. Watershed Restoration groups and democratic land trusts will be described as examples of such ethically deep institutions. In terms of the panel, this paper specifically addresses the status. Limits and legitimacy of knowledge regarding complex systems, system based ethics, systems and the social sciences, and systems and human subjectivity

Watershed Restoration Groups and Democratic Forest Trusts as Evolutionary Learning Communities

Civil society rather than either the market or traditional political processes is the most institutionally compatible context within which evolutionary learning communities can be established. This point will be developed using examples drawn form watershed restoration communities in California and Washington. They are examples of evolutionary learning and gradually shifting cultural awareness through confronting the concrete challenges of becoming native to and caretakers of a place. These examples also help explore how evolutionary learning can be integrated into existing society, the weaknesses and strengths traditional governmental and economic institutions bring to this process, and why outside civil society evolutionary learning institutions face systemic environments that are not conducive to their values. The lessons gained from these examples will be applied to other environmental problems where the ELC model holds great potential, particularly the national forests. In terms of the preferences of the sponsors for this section, my paper will explicitly discuss the following” • Human, social, and natural capital These associations all incorporate human, social, and natural capital into the core of their mission and actions. • Self-directed sustainable development These associations only function when they are autonomous, although this very autonomy enables them to be effective learning organizations with respect to discoveries, insights, and experiences by other associations that are relevant to their tasks. • Community empowerment and participatory/anticipatory democracy These associations are perfect illustrations of the viability of discourse models of democratic practice as developed in the work of John Dryzek as well as the promise of a bioregional framework for ELCs. • Socio-ecological competence and the evolution of consciousness The ability of the earliest of these associations to engage large portions of their community, shift cultural perceptions, and recruit new leadership over several decades indicates their success • Design of ELCs as evolutionary guidance systems The most relevant findings of my research so far support James C. Scott and F. A. Hayek’s emphasis on local knowledge as fundamental to the success of learning within complex systems such as dispersed watershed restoration groups. In addition, these examples support Elinor Ostrom’s argument that local groups are necessary because even successful groups within one environment cannot generate reliable principles concrete enough to enable other successful groups to be organized elsewhere. • Evolutionary Systems Design as praxis These above points provide essential insight as to how such groups can be encouraged. I will argue that the model of democratic forest trusts suggests how these lessons can be applied to a very different ecological context, the National Forests. • Syntony as an organizing force in societal evolution The experience of watershed restoration groups demonstrates how decentralized learning networks are able top spread and evaluate their and others’ experiences in the absence of organizational hierarchies. They thus exemplify emergent order processes