Aporias of ecological thought

Tynan, Aidan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0548-2013 2022. Aporias of ecological thought. Theory, Culture and Society 39 (5) , pp. 3-21. 10.1177/02632764211039280

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Abstract

Debates in ecological social theory are characterised by dualisms of nature and society. I propose the notion of ‘ecological aporias’ to account for these dualisms, focusing on three landmark examples of ecological thought over the past four decades from Niklas Luhmann, Bruno Latour, and Jason W. Moore. I show the persistence in this work of paradoxes and intractable contradictions revolving around the nature/society dualism. Rather than trying to dissolve these ecological aporias, I draw on recent work in eco-deconstruction to suggest that the ecological is itself an aporetic category and that this enables a new perspective for political ecology in an age of climate crisis. Rejecting Latour’s identification of political ecology with the politics of dwelling, I argue that climate change demands we recognise forms of life irreducible to the ontological security on which the concept of the ecological has long been based.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	English, Communication and Philosophy
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0263-2764
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	4 August 2021
Date of Acceptance:	20 July 2021
Last Modified:	21 Nov 2024 17:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/143160

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