The Human Glance, the Experience of Environmental Distress and the “Affordance” of Nature: Toward a Phenomenology of the Ecological Crisis

Blok, Vincent

doi:10.1007/s10806-015-9565-8

Cited by 13 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Human ethics (e.g., Levinas's Other in distress) appear right before our eyes, offering a direct ethical relation (Casey, 2003). A slowly dying planet, however, does not move us to immediate action (Blok, 2015). We do not feel directly responsible for the planet like we might with other people or creatures (Toadvine, 2012).…”

Section: The Bbe: Control and Contradictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency Versus Enjoyment: Looking After the Human Condition in the Transition to the Bio-Based Economy

Veraart

Blok

2021

J Agric Environ Ethics

Self Cite

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In this paper, we criticize the current focus of the bio-based economy (BBE) on efficiency and control and demonstrate the contradictions that this causes. We elucidate these tensions by comparing the BBE to alternative conceptions of economy that emphasise the relevance of both the human condition and unfathomable nature in the macro ecological transition project. From Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy, we take and extrapolate two major concepts-il y a and enjoyment-that help to reevaluate the status of both nature and the human subject involved in environmental instability. From this analysis, we evaluate current economic practice in close relation to the deteriorating environment to contribute to a conception of an economy that is truly based on principles of the biosphere. We conclude that humankind and nature are notions that must be always considered in this encompassing and topical effort and explain how they have been fundamentally overlooked in current thought on the bio-based and circular economy.

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Section: The Bbe: Control and Contradictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficiency Versus Enjoyment: Looking After the Human Condition in the Transition to the Bio-Based Economy

Veraart

Blok

2021

J Agric Environ Ethics

Self Cite

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“…However, the problem is not to see the causes and consequences of a hazard but to notice the huge gap between our ethical judgments towards a crisis. We must shape our ethical responses according to these judgments, which cannot be bridged only by the enhancement of knowledge [ 47 ].…”

Section: Discourse Of a Systemic Resiliencementioning

confidence: 99%

A systemic approach to resilience and ecological sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic: Human, societal, and ecological health as a system-wide emergent property in the Anthropocene

Zabaniotou

2020

Global Transitions

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a worldwide disruption. Most people have never witnessed such a global threat, and the world’s leaders have not dealt with a crisis of this magnitude; moreover, Research & Innovation (R&I) teams have little time to invent new pharmaceutical therapies. Nations are trying to implement controlling strategies for avoiding significant losses, but this pandemic has already imprinted itself upon their citizens’ psyche, created social anxiety, and disrupted national economies. The complexity of the psychological, social, and economic interrelations of this new source of stress cannot be appropriately understood by scientific reductionism and specialised thinking only. It needs to be considered how the current pandemic links to questions of ecological sustainability and resilience. Further, we must rethink the complex interactions of human-nature health that drove the crisis, as proof of an unsustainable human civilisation. Accordingly, this paper aims to contribute to the transdisciplinary resilience dialogue on the health maintenance and life-supporting processes of the biosphere by focusing on the COVID-19 crisis. It explores various frameworks that are contributing to the transdisciplinary meta-perspective of resilience. Moreover, it proposes a humanistic approach based on not only controlling strategies involving containment and social isolation but also the ecological balance considering the human, societal, and ecological health as a system-wide emergent property. Conceptual frameworks of resilience are discussed—as mapping methodologies to structure the discourse—focusing on the role of leadership and empowerment. Furthermore, some positive insights are discussed, as a transdisciplinary integrator and solidarity facilitator of coping, mitigation, and decision-making in the time of uncertainty and anxiety created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“…According to Blok (2015), awareness of the ecological crisis is not the problem we face today. The problem is the gap between our ethical judgments about the ecological crises and our ethical responses according to these judgments, which can only be bridged by the enhancement of knowledge and through rational choices [109].…”

Section: Looking To Systemic Resilience Through Eco-philosophical Lensesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Multidisciplinarity to Transdisciplinarity and from Local to Global Foci: Integrative Approaches to Systemic Resilience Based upon the Value of Life in the Context of Environmental and Gender Vulnerabilities with a Special Focus upon the Brazilian Amazon Biome

et al. 2020

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Economic and environmental interventions in the Anthropocene have created disruptions that are threatening the capacity of socio-ecological systems to recover from adversities and to be able to maintain key functions for preserving resilience. The authors of this paper underscore the benefits of a workshop-based methodology for developing a vision and an approach to the inner processes of creation that can be used to increase resilience, to cope with societal vulnerabilities and to develop the tools for future planning at local, regional and global scales. Diverse areas of discourse ranging from climate science and sustainability, to psychoanalysis, linguistics and eco-philosophy, contributed meaningfully to the transdisciplinary approach for enhancing resilience. A framework is proposed that can be used throughout society, that integrates the importance of human subjectivity and the variability of human contexts, especially gender, in shaping human experiences and responses to climate change impacts and challenges such as the covid-19 pandemic. Within the domain of socio-economic research, the authors challenge researchers and policy makers to expand future perspectives of resilience through the proposed systemic resilience vision. Movement towards transformative thinking and actions requires inner exploration and visualization of desirable futures for integrating ecological, social, cultural, ethical, and economic dimensions as agencies for catalyzing the transition to livable, sustainable, equitable, ethical, and resilient societies.

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The Human Glance, the Experience of Environmental Distress and the “Affordance” of Nature: Toward a Phenomenology of the Ecological Crisis

Cited by 13 publications

References 9 publications

Efficiency Versus Enjoyment: Looking After the Human Condition in the Transition to the Bio-Based Economy

Efficiency Versus Enjoyment: Looking After the Human Condition in the Transition to the Bio-Based Economy

A systemic approach to resilience and ecological sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic: Human, societal, and ecological health as a system-wide emergent property in the Anthropocene

From Multidisciplinarity to Transdisciplinarity and from Local to Global Foci: Integrative Approaches to Systemic Resilience Based upon the Value of Life in the Context of Environmental and Gender Vulnerabilities with a Special Focus upon the Brazilian Amazon Biome

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