Over this last decade, the concept of Social Metabolism has gained prestige as a theoretical instrument for the required analysis, to such an extent that there are now dozens of researchers, hundreds of articles and several books that have adopted and use this concept. However, there is a great deal of variety in terms of definitions and interpretations, as well as different methodologies around this concept, which prevents the consolidation of a unified field of new knowledge. The fundamental aim of the book is to conduct a review of the past and present usage of the concept of social metabolism, its origins and history, as well as the main currents or schools that exist around this concept. At the same time, the reviews and discussions included are used by the authors as starting points to draw conclusions and propose a theory of socio-ecological transformations.

The theoretical and methodological innovations of this book include a distinction of two types of metabolic processes: tangible and intangible; the analysis of the social metabolism at different scales (in space and time) and a theory of socio-ecological change overcoming the merely systemic or cybernetic nature of conventional approaches, giving special protagonism to collective action.

An updated summary of the theoretical and methodological approach of social metabolism and their latest contributions Provides an interpretation of human history from a socio-ecological perspective Proposes a new theory of socio-ecological change, in which collective action takes a prominent place Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

Manuel González de Molina is Professor of Environmental History. Coordinator of the Agroecosystems History Laboratory. His work focuses on the contemporary rural world, the biophysical analysis of agroecosystems and food systems and the design of public policies from an agroecological point of view. He has directed a Master Degree Program on Agroecology at International University of Andalusia from 1996 to the present. Has been president of the Spanish Society for Agrarian History from 2016 to 2023. He is member of the editorial board of the ISI-refereed journals Historia Agraria [Agrarian History Review], Anthropoce, Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, and Sustainability. Vice-president of the Spanish Society for Organic Agriculture (SEAE) since 2006 until 2014. Minister of the Department of Organic Agriculture of the Andalusia Government (Spain) from 2004 until 2007. Author of over a hundred papers published in high impact journals and several books, among the most recent: Energy in Agroecosystems: A Tool for Assessing Sustainability (CRC Press, USA, 2017); Political Agroecology: Advancing the Transition to Sustainable Food Systems (CRC Press, 2019); The Social Metabolism of Spanish Agriculture, 1900-2008. The Mediterranean way towards Industrialization (Springer, 2020). Víctor Manuel Toledo is a Researcher at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad (UNAM, México). He is biologist and has both a master's degree and a doctorate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and has published 200 professional papers and 20 books. He is a researcher in Ecology at the UNAM and a visiting professor at the International University of Andalucía, Spain.[2] In 2011 he founded the Red Temática del Consejo Nacional del Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (Thematic Network of the National Council of the National Council of Science and Technology, Conayct). He has worked in nine different Mexican universities, the University of California, Berkeley; in addition to universities in Venezuela, Cuba, Spain, Ecuador, and Brazil. He was granted the Premio Nacional Medio Ambiente (1985), the Premio Mérito Ecológico from the governor of the State of Mexico (1989), and the Luis Elizondo Prize of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (2000). He has served as Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) of Mexico from May 27, 2019 to September 2, 2020.

Klappentext
Today, the most notable feature of the modern world is the growing concern for the future, since human society is immersed in a giant, uncontrolled experiment (McNeill, 2000), which it has caused, where natural and social processes are connected in an unprecedented way, generating new unpredictable and surprising dynamics and synergies that are threatening the human species, planetary equilibrium and the whole of life itself. Faced with the above situation, science as a whole is compelled to look back in order to learn from the past (lessons), and to adopt a rigorous historical perspective that will provide a thorough understanding of current situations from a socio-ecological perspective, capable of orchestrating interdisciplinary research into relations between society and nature. Over this last decade, the concept of social metabolism has gained prestige as a theoretical instrument for the required analysis, to such an extent that there are now dozens of researchers, hundreds of articles and several books that have adopted and use this concept. However, there is a great deal of variety in terms of definitions and interpretations, as well as different methodologies around this concept, which prevents the consolidation of a unified field of new knowledge. The fundamental aim of the book is to conduct a review of the past and present usage of the concept of social metabolism, its origins and history, as well as the main currents or schools that exist around this concept. At the same time, the reviews and discussions included are used by the authors as starting points to draw conclusions and propose a theory of socio-ecological transformations. The theoretical and methodological innovations of this book include: a. the rigorous definition of a basic model for the process of social metabolism; b. the distinction of two types of metabolic processes: tangible and intangible; c. detailed discussion regarding the conceptof nature appropriation; d. analysis of the social metabolism at different scales (spatial dimension); e. historical analysis of the social metabolism (temporal dimension and socio-ecological change); f. overcoming the merely systemic or cybernetic nature of approaches, giving protagonism to collective action; and consequence and explanation of the above: g. integration of an ethical and political dimension to the theory.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Environmental history as sustainability science.- 3. Social metabolism: origins, history, approaches and main publications.- 4. The basic model.- 5. Social metabolism at the local scale.- 6. Social metabolism at the regional scale.- 7. Social metabolism at the national and global scales.- 8. Global metabolism.- 9. The cinegetic or extractive mode of social metabolism.- 10. The organic metabolism.- 11. The industrial metabolism.- 12. A non-cybernetic theory of social metabolism.- 13. Metabolic transitions: a theory of socioecological transformation.- 14. Epilogue: metabolisms, entropy and sustainable society.