ON THE PATH TO AN ECOLOGICAL CIVILIZATION: THE ECO-HUMAN PERSPECTIVE: THE MAIN IDEAS OF THE BOOK
Alexander Kopytin
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Department of Psychology, St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Studies (St Petersburg, Russian Federation)
Arran Gare
Associate Professor, Philosophy and Cultural Inquiry, Swinburne University of Technology (Hawthorn, Australia)
Zhihe Wang
PhD, Director of Institute for Postmodern Development of China, Co-director of China Project, Center for Process Studies (Claremont, CA, USA)
Stephen K. Levine
PhD, DSc, REAT, Professor Emeritus, York University (Toronto, Canada), Founding Dean of the Doctoral Program in Expressive Arts at The European Graduate School (Switzerland)
Abstract
This paper presents the international collective monograph «На пути к экологической цивилизации: экогуманитарная перспектива» ("On the path to an ecological civilization: The eco-human perspective") published in 2024 in Russia and edited by A. I. Kopytin, A. Gare, J. Wang, and S. K. Levine [3]. It explores the scientific understanding of an ecological civilization as one possible scenario for the future of humanity. The concept of sustainable development, its constructive potential, and its limitations are assessed. From the perspective of an eco-human approach, the prospects for the development of modern civilization and solutions to environmental and human problems are considered. A system of eco-human technologies that utilizes the potential of the arts and human sciences in education, enlightenment, medicine, and social work is described.
Keywords: ecological civilization, eco-human approach, eco-human technologies, concept of sustainable development, decolonization.
Introduction
The global environmental crisis is at the center of the overall picture of the critical state of nature and humanity. Environmental problems are inextricably linked to the exacerbation of economic, social, and political challenges and demonstrate the fragility of the existing world order. As a result of market globalization under the banner of neoliberalism, local problems have begun to have global consequences. These problems did not arise overnight, but developed gradually and have recently become particularly dramatic.
Attempts to address the global environmental crisis, coupled with economic, social, and political challenges, were undertaken at the 1972 UN Conference on the Environment [12], which adopted the concept of sustainable development, supported by the World Commission on Environment and Development's Report, "Our Common Future." [10] However, it was the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro [11] that marked the full international recognition of the need for the global community to come to a new development path. Representatives of 178 countries supported the fundamental ideas of the concept of sustainable development, which formed the basis of Agenda 21, according to which national development strategies must ensure the coordination of environmental, social, and economic issues. The overall goal of sustainable development is recognized as the social orientation of economic development and the preservation of the planet's resource base for the benefit of future generations.
Recognized conditions for sustainable development include changing attitudes toward the environment, overcoming a consumerist lifestyle, implementing resource conservation policies, large-scale development of secondary resource potential, and the "greening" of consciousness, production, legislation, and all management decisions.
The concept of sustainable development is associated with the creation of an economic model that is based on environmental imperatives and principles of social justice, takes into account the extent of biospheric processes and the permissible anthropogenic load on the environment, and enables the reproduction of an environment suitable for human habitation, maintaining a sufficient resource base, and preserving the human genome. A key tenet of the concept of sustainable development is maintaining the dynamic equilibrium of the biosphere through balanced, intensive nature management, ensuring the self-healing of nature.
However, today, more than 30 years after the inception of the concept of sustainable development, its results have proven disappointing. There are doubts about the feasibility of achieving the stated goals for a number of reasons, one of which is the ambiguous definition of this model and the conditions for its implementation. The model in its current form is unable to clearly identify the causes of the contemporary crisis of civilization and the ways to overcome it, since it is based on the idea that existing difficulties affecting the environment, economy, politics, and social spheres can be overcome by improving approaches to economic activity and social regulation, without affecting the fundamental foundations of the existing world order and culture.
The unsatisfactory results of attempts to implement the concept of sustainable development demonstrate the need for more radical approaches, involving a critical examination of the dynamics of the global market economy that underpins its culture and system of scientific knowledge. Clearly, the environmental crisis is closely linked to serious economic, geopolitical, and humanitarian problems and is a product of the attitude toward nature characteristic of industrial civilization. This attitude primarily serves economic growth, the interests of the financial, industrial, and political elite, business corporations, and certain categories of the population in wealthy countries. This is the essence of the globalized market system as a project aimed at conquering the natural world and other components of life, including humans, their bodies, intellect, and creative potential.
The urgency of an ecological civilization
In the current situation of geopolitical confrontation and the struggle for resources, as long as the global community remains captive to the prevailing anthropocentric worldview and capitalist global ecology [9], the sustainable development model cannot be consistently implemented. This anthropocentric worldview not only drives the entire logic of the actions and policies of the United States and its satellites, but also largely characterizes the development logic of those states that, to a certain extent, oppose the United States, defending their national interests (Russia, China, Latin America, and others). Until recently, these countries were also part of the same market economic and cultural system controlled by the global hegemon.
The formation of industrial civilization is historically based on the development of Western capitalist societies, which, from their very inception, emerged as colonial powers and later transformed into post-colonial metropolises. At a certain historical moment, Russia (the USSR) and the countries of the socialist camp embarked on the path of industrial development. Rapid industrialization also characterized China's development in the second half of the 20th century.
Today, all countries in the world continue to develop along the same path of industrial civilization. At the same time, the world is characterized by uneven development across different countries and regions, as well as by injustice in relations between states, with countries in the "civilized" core (the so-called "collective West") dominating and, to a certain extent, controlling the so-called semi-peripheries and peripheries, while appropriating the majority of the planet's wealth. This has been demonstrated in the works of world-systems theorists inspired by Immanuel Wallerstein, particularly world-ecological systems theorists Stephen Bunker, Alf Hornborg, and Jason Moore [5, 7, 9].
Internal contradictions are a hallmark of this civilization, generating instability in the global ecology, economic, and political systems. Moreover, this instability is regularly deliberately provoked by certain states and interest groups for the purpose of their own survival and hegemony. Efforts to overcome the current systemic crisis of civilization will be ineffective as long as humanity remains captive to an anthropocentric worldview and the established system of interstate and economic relations, the culture of the modern globalized market. To overcome the crisis that has affected the environment, the economy, the social sphere, and politics, the global community must create an ecological civilization based on different positions, a different way of thinking, meanings, and principles of existence, and on human relationships with each other and the natural world.
The ideas of an ecological civilization are in the air and have now been formalized into a coherent program capable of influencing the destinies of humanity and nature in their unity. The civilization of exploiting nature and human society, of unbridled and destructive consumption, must be replaced by a new way of life that affirms the value of life. Ideas associated with an ecological civilization have different historical antecedents. Worldviews very close to the ideas of ecological civilization can be found, for example, in Eastern philosophical systems associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Sufism. The ecological civilization model is inclusive, uniting humanity and diverse cultural traditions in their opposition to the current Western ruling elites. Although the Islamic world does not yet play a significant role in addressing environmental issues, it is taking certain steps in this direction.
The ideas of American environmentalism, Russian cosmism, the ethical-aesthetic approach to nature conservation developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by scholars such as V. I. Taliev, A. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, D. N. Anuchin, D. N. Kaigorodov, and I. P. Borodin, V. I. Vernadsky's noospheric concept, N. N. Moiseyev's ideas of "universal evolutionism" and "the theory of self-organization of the Universe," and, more recently, ideas associated with the Gaia hypothesis, can be considered as constituting the ideological foundation of an ecological civilization.
The development of a model of ecological civilization is also facilitated by new ideas in ecology, including human ecology, and, more recently, by the eco-human approach [1, 4]. The constructive application of the concept of ecological civilization is determined primarily by systems ecological thinking. "Ecology" is a radical, system-forming concept necessary for rethinking all cultural practices and helping to realize new possibilities for solving the problems of preserving humanity and the planet. Recent advances in ecology are increasingly influencing the entire scientific community, creating the basis for overcoming the limitations of previous ways of thinking and forging a new vision of the future with different ethics and political philosophy.
The concept of an ecological civilization is becoming the basis for uniting various forces in the search for solutions to environmental problems, taking into account their close connection with social, economic, and political issues and the crisis of ideas about humanity, the purpose and meaning of human existence.
Distinctive features of an ecological civilization
In accordance with the traditions of social and ecological thought associated with the ideals of a society of social justice, an ecological civilization is understood as something that transcends modern industrial civilization and is associated with new types of social relations and a new type of culture, thanks to which people can live more meaningfully and freely, aligning their lives with the needs of the ecosphere.
Summarizing the provisions of existing sources that examine the concept of an ecological civilization, including the ideas presented in the book "On the path to an ecological civilization: The eco-human perspective" [2, 3, 6], we can formulate the conditions for the transition to an ecological civilization as follows:
– International cooperation and coordination of the efforts of all countries or their coalitions based on a common political will to change the existing order of things in the interests of preserving life on the planet.
– Support for the processes of decolonization and self-determination of countries and territories of the planet; counteraction to neocolonialism, the influence of market macroparasites [8] and global corporatocracy.
– The formation of a multipolar world with the goal of the revival and further development of economic, cultural and natural ecosystems.
– Reorganization of the matrix of capitalist global ecology with its division into main zones, semi-periphery and periphery, using the processes of decolonization and the formation of a multipolar world; its transformation into the matrix of post-capitalist global ecology.
– Creation of a new system of international institutions to protect human and environmental rights, replacing the currently degraded and biased institutions.
– Transformation of technologies through their targeted alignment with the laws of the biosphere.
– Abandonment of extensive and transition to intensive development of industry and agriculture.
– Greening of public consciousness, formation of an environmental culture, effective promotion of eco-human values; development of eco-human education and awareness.
– Reasonable limitation of human material needs, rejection of consumerist ideology.
– Reorganization of the system of scientific knowledge with the aim of overcoming the disunity of sciences and their harmonization based on new achievements in scientific ecology and eco-human concepts.
Without rejecting science and technology, such a civilization makes science and technology work for the benefit of, rather than against, the interests of the planet and humanity, integrating ecology, the natural and social sciences with a new type of humanities. A key element of the ecological civilization model is the concept of humanity in its unity with the natural world. These concepts are currently being formalized into a transdisciplinary eco-human approach. Its primary focus is the essence of humanity in the process of self-knowledge and in the system of its relationships with the natural world [2, 4].
The eco-human approach to understanding humanity perceives humanity as part of a single subject: "nature-humanity," where "nature" and "humanity" constitute two subsystems of a single whole. The eco-human approach is a system of humanities knowledge, concepts, and modes of thought, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards, which inform constructions, generalizations, and experiments, exploring the essence, properties, and manifestations of humanity in their relationships with the environment and the natural world.
Eco-human technologies
The eco-human approach can be used to create eco-human technologies—methods and techniques for fostering a new type of thinking, environmental awareness, and environmental culture. Eco-human technologies constitute a practical branch of the eco-human approach, with their own methods for influencing cultural life and the individual's relationship to themselves and their environment. Eco-human technologies draw on the potential of science and the arts, as well as the humanities in education, enlightenment, psychology, applied anthropology, and the social and political sciences.
The book presents a comprehensive overview of innovative eco-human technologies currently used in medicine, education, and social work. Eco-human therapeutic methods are illustrated using expressive/creative therapy practices as an example. Environmental expressive therapies offer a more realistic and life-affirming vision of how to create with all aspects of nature and become more resourceful partners. Rather than continuing efforts to subjugate the natural world, we can respect and preserve it both inside ourselves and in the places we inhabit. The book offers both a fresh and convincing paradigm for professional practice for mental health practitioners with accessible ways of working that connect directly with nature.
The spectrum of expressive/creative therapies embraced in this section of the book is broad and includes either specialized therapeutic approaches using one particular expressive form such as art therapy, dramatherapy, etc., and those based on the integrative arts approach. Other expressive therapeutic specializations like original therapeutic methods integrating expressive arts and other nonverbal therapies, such as animal-assisted therapy, horticultural therapy, adventure therapy, contemplative practices in nature, and some others enrich this spectrum.
These health-promoting eco-human technologies within expressive/creative therapies represent a growing segment of the bigger fields of ecological and environmental psychology, ecotherapy and ecohealth movements. Ecopsychology can be seen as a worldview and diverse social movement that recognizes a synergy between human mental health and well-being and the health and ecological integrity of the natural environment. This is a perennial idea that has gained new currency and a sense of urgency in the modern environmental movement, particularly in its ‘deep ecology’ wing. The book includes highlights of the work that expressive therapists from different parts of the globe have accomplished over the last several years to meet these challenges and establish a new platform and instruments for environmentally sensitive therapeutic practices.
A considerable part of the book focuses on the variability of expressive and instrumental forms that can be applied in the context of the nature-based therapies. It represents a variety of practical approaches and tools used with different populations, such as children and adolescents, families, adults and senior people, and in various institutional contexts including clinical, educational, social and community-based settings.
A special section of the book embraces eco-human technologies currently used in educational settings and often aligned with education for sustainable development. This section presents the results of psychological and pedagogical studies of the formation of subjective attitudes towards nature in schoolchildren, the role of the arts in the theory and practice of modern environmental education, in order to develop a culture of sustainable development in students. Methodological approaches to improving the quality of environmental education and enlightenment of the younger generation at different levels of continuous education are also presented in this section.
The importance of the humanities, in their unity with the arts, in the transition to an ecological civilization is difficult to overestimate, as they are capable of countering the disintegration of modern human knowledge, the dehumanization of culture, and the erosion of its fundamental values. They form a platform for understanding the present and defining paths to the future. The eco-human approach can hardly be successfully implemented without relying on various forms of artistic and aesthetic comprehension of nature and humanity. Hence the need to develop eco-human technologies based on art. These technologies are included in the two sections of the book representing creative endeavors of some contemporary artists with their attempts to integrate the arts, ecology and human sciences.
Understanding nature in its unity and relationship with humanity through the arts is becoming one of the central civilizational tasks. The arts play an increasingly significant role in humanity's environmental agenda. Along with science, they attempt to resolve key questions about the existence of nature and humanity in its own way. They possess their own means of identifying and addressing environmental and human problems, methods of socio-psychological reflection, and they shape new ways of thinking and behavior.
Obstacles on the path to ecological civilization
However, it would be naive to ignore the serious impediments that lie on the path to ecological civilization. The international atmosphere, which continues to be dominated by industrial civilization and its law of the jungle, remains resistant to an ecological civilization. Various obsolete worldviews and power systems do also play a significant role in opposing the construction of an ecological civilization.
Colonial scenarios are characteristic of global hegemons, reflecting neo-colonial and imperial values and a blind faith in unrestricted economic growth. Modern neo-colonialism still clings to the old anthropocentric model and strives in every possible way to build relations with the world on the basis of its superiority using the strategies of political, economic and military pressure.
Modern neo-colonialism, although it still clings to the old anthropocentric model of the human exemption and strives in every possible way to build relations with the world on the basis of its superiority, is unlikely to be capable of maintaining its hegemony. It is in crisis and cannot effectively solve any of the key existential tasks, including the task of preserving the global ecosystem and creating fair inter-state relations, taking into account the interests of other states and human beings as a whole.
Wang, Fan, Wang claim [13] also consider some other challenges to the development of an ecological civilization:
- Linear notion of development: many people still believe that history must inevitably follow a linear model of development through successive defined stages of increasing sophistication: namely, premodern, modern, and postmodern. This belief is squarely based on a linear conception of progress.
- Mechanistic materialism with its view of nature as something passive, which denies nature any purpose or capacity for self-development.
- Mechanistic materialism is closely related to scientism, which regards mainstream science as the only legitimate form of knowledge and regards the idea of ecological civilization as “unscientific”.
- Compartmentalization in the academic world demands attention as well. The departments in universities divide scholars into rigid disciplines. Many scientists are reluctant to engage in the type of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary thinking and engagement that ecological civilization urgently needs.
Conclusion
The monograph "On the path to an ecological civilization: The eco-human perspective" represents an example of international collaboration between scholars and practitioners addressing the challenges of a multidisciplinary understanding of the phenomenon of ecological civilization and the development of eco-human methods and technologies that can be used in education and awareness-raising, and in the broader social domain to foster environmental awareness and environmental culture. This book reflects the cutting edge of ideas and applied methods related to building an ecological civilization and is one of the first publications in Russian to utilize the conceptual framework of the eco-human approach.
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Suggested citation note
Kopytin, A.I., Gare, A., Wang, Z., Levine, S.K. (2026). On the path to ecological civilization: The eco-human perspective. The main ideas of the book. Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice, 7 (1). [open access internet journal]. – URL: http://ecopoiesis.ru (d/m/y)