Conclusion: The Ecological Self

PurposeThe paper's aim is to explore the connection between individual worldviews, called ecological selves, and organizational change, which allows people to create the conditions to confront the global environmental challenges they face as a species.Design/methodology/approachThe essay is a conceptual one, with reference to a small qualitative interview study conducted to explore the idea of ecological selves with organizational leaders.FindingsThe findings reveal the existence of several different ecological selves in organizational life; they also suggest fruitful avenues for further research and ongoing practice. The eight ecological selves are the Eco‐Guardian, the Eco‐Warrior, the Eco‐Manager, the Eco‐Strategist, the Eco‐Radical, the Eco‐Holist, the Eco‐Integralist, and the Eco‐Sage. This framework, which is derived from developmental stage theory, is a useful tool for understanding how individual actions are shaped by people's identities and values.Research limitations/implicationsThe preliminary research referenced in this study is of limited scope, consisting of a small sample of organizational leaders in a semi‐structured qualitative interview setting. The implications, however, are more interesting for additional research on ecological selves as a tool for individual self‐reflection, organizational culture, and teamwork learning.Practical implicationsThis essay argues that creating an ecological selves inventory is useful in understanding how leaders create the conditions for sustainability in their organizations.Social implicationsImplications for understanding organizational culture are considered: the ecological selves framework is one tool to build self‐awareness among organizational leaders, leading to stronger, more efficacious learning across a spectrum of skills necessary for leadership.Originality/valueAlthough the ecological selves framework has been proposed as a theoretical concept in the literature of integral ecology, this paper refers to the first research done with organizational leaders.

The sociological study of identities has become more important in recent years with the emergence of expressive forms of politics in the so-called ‘new social movements’ and their construction of grassroots collective identities. The social construction of identity has also been a theme within debates on consumerism and the consumer society, which enables and encourages the purchase of elements for the construction of social identities. The dominance of broadly social constructionist arguments in this field has not allowed for a systematic discussion with the alternative arguments presented by deep ecologists and ecofeminists, many of whom claim a strong connection between self identities and the rest of nature. Their concept of an ‘ecological self’ is vigorously contested in academic debates, feminist scholarship and within environmental and Green movements. Whilst some see such a concept as essentialist and politically regressive, harking back to arguments that propose ‘natural’ gender divisions, others believe that amongst the alternative proposals for the solution of environmental problems, the most effective is likely to involve encouraging people to recognise their rootedness in natural ecosystems and hence their intrinsically ecological self-concept. This chapter outlines the terms of this debate and brings ecological theories into contact with sociological theories of self formation and the creation of self identities. In doing so, the extent to which ecological and sociological theories are potentially compatible may become a little clearer.

How to conceive and experience one’s self is the linchpin for achieving an efficacious environmental philosophy. Naess was among the first to put the question of self at the center of environmental philosophy and laid cautious claim to ‘introduce … a concept of ecological self’ for the first time. Naess’ ‘ecological self’ is vitiated by at least four flaws: (i) an eclectic and mutually inconsistent set of informative sources (Freud, Fromm, William James; Mohandas Ghandhi and Advaita Vedanta); (ii) a narrow conception of ethics drawn principally from Kant; (iii) inattention to state-of-the-art ecology (the science) as a model for an ecological self; (iv) reinforcing rather than deconstructing the insidious notion of self as substance. A self resonant with ecology would posit the self as a knot, nexus, or node in a skein of social and environmental relationships. Such relationships are internal. The classical antecedent of such an ecological self is not the Hindu Ātman/Brahman—the universal substance in all—as per Naess, but the Buddhist Anātman or Anattā (No-self)/Śūnyatā (Emptiness). In the hybrid philosophical expression of Japanese Buddhism by members of the Kyoto School, the core of the internally related ecological self is the topos of mu.

Ecopsychology holds that a full-fledged self should be in harmony with nature, but when the human’s social self, consumptive false self, and paranoid cultural narcissism prevail, the ecological self goes from dominant existence to recessive existence. Because of this predicament with regard to the ecological self, one should make full use of wildness spirit to reshape the ecological self. Due to the abstract nature of the wilderness spirit and in an attempt to present the wilderness spirit in a more concrete and vivid way, the wilderness spirit needs to be set apart from wilderness literature so as to analyze the role that the wilderness spirit plays in rebuilding the ecological self.

The article discusses the notion of the ecological self as a key concept for teacher identity construction during teacher education in the context of sustainable development (SD). Substantial amount of literature supports the understanding that the solution to the global sustainability crisis lies in the field of education where teacher identity, teacher self, plays a significant role. The paper gives the argumentation for the concept of ecological self and focuses on the question how to support the development of the ecological self during teacher education (TE). Esbjörn-Hargens & Zimmerman’s model of eco-selves and Saks’ model of intention are presented that could be used for that purpose. Some methods for supporting the development of an ecological self of a future teacher are also shared, for investigation and practical implementation in TE. The limitations of the present approach are obvious first and foremost due to the understanding that we are currently facing transformation in governing paradigms, change in dominating worldviews that penetrate any quest for ‘truth’, also in the field of science.

在自我参照记忆效应中加入生态自我参照任务，探索是否存在与个体自我参照及群体参照同样的记忆优先效应。实验结果表明：以生态自我为参照的加工任务的再认成绩与语义参照加工任务的再认成绩之间并不存在显著的差异，但在R与K指标上，生态自我参照的R值显著高于语义参照，反映出了生态自我参照能够促进记忆的加工。 Joining the ecological self reference processing tasks into the self reference memory effect is to explore whether the memory is priority as that in the individual self-reference and the group- reference. The results from the experiment showed that: ecological self referential processing task and semantic processing task did not differ in recognition rates. However, “Remember” judgment rates were significantly higher in ecological self referential processing task than those in semantic processing task, which reflected the promotion of ecological self reference on memory.

This paper discusses an integrated model of a robot's sensory and perceptual capabilities based on one of the earliest forms of self-knowledge that humans develop, knowledge of the Ecological Self. The Ecological Self is a cohesive model of the body and senses learned through the experience of using them together. This unified model allows kinematic and sensory data to be combined, producing an intersensory perception grounded in both inputs. Taking inspiration from this Ecological Self, but building on modern engineering practices, this model allows a robot to learn the kinematics of its end-effector by witnessing its motion in its visual field. This property of adaptation through self-observation also allows the model to adapt to changes in the robot's kinematic structure, as in the case of tool use. A final refinement is performed over the combined visual-kinematic model and is demonstrated to improve not only the accuracy of the kinematic model, but also the robot's stereo vision calibration. This refinement is inspired by the hypothetical process by which infants learn about their selves. The system is demonstrated to require fewer than 200 motion samples to fully train, to predict end-effector position within 2.29mm (SD=0.10) and 2.93 pixels (SD=3.83), to learn the lengths of the linkages in the robot's arm to within 1.1mm, and to adapt to tool use after only 52 samples.

This book brings different ideas to bear on the classical problem of the self. Self-perception, both ecological and social, is the earliest and most fundamental form of self-knowledge. In his introduction, Ulric Neisser describes the 'ecological self' as based on direct and realistic perception of one's situation in the environment; the 'interpersonal self' as established by social interaction with other people. He argues that both of these 'selves' appear in early infancy, long before anything like a self-concept or a self-narrative is possible. In subsequent chapters, fifteen contributors - psychologists, philosophers and others - elaborate on these notions and introduce related ideas of their own. Their topics range from the perceptual and social development of infants to autism and blindness; from mechanisms of motor control to dance and non-verbal communication. The combined contributions of these leading individuals creates an unusual synthesis of perceptual, social and developmental theory.

This article examines how a non-anthropocentric virtue ethics can truly avoid an anthropocentric bias in the ethical evaluation of a situation where the environment is at stake. It argues that a non-anthropocentric virtue ethics capable of avoiding the pitfall of an anthropocentric bias can only conceive of the ultimate good—from which virtues are defined—in reference to an ecological self. Such a self implies that the natural environment is not simply a condition for human flourishing, or something that complements it by adding the proper good of animals, organisms or ecosystems. Fulfilment is not that of a human self, but that of an ecological self: the natural environment or nature is not an external but an internal good. Therefore, the virtues or character traits that such an ecological self must nurture and develop leads us ultimately to distinguish—without opposing them—three different forms of virtue ethics applied to the environment, depending on whether it is anthropocentric or non-anthropocentric and whether nature is considered extrinsically or intrinsically. Such distinctions are also crucial to determine how we conceive of the political community and the collective goals that virtuous citizens assign to it (for instance, to preserve biodiversity, to tackle climate change, and so on).

In this paper, we discuss Naess’s concept of ecological self in light of the process of identification and the idea of self-realization, in order to understand the asymmetrical relationship among human beings and nature. In this regard, our hypothesis is that Naess does not use the concept of the ecological self to justify ontology of processes, or definitively overcome the idea of individual entities in view of a transpersonal ecology, as Fox argues. Quite the opposite: Naess’s ecological self is nothing but an echo of the theme of the home and of belonging to a place (i.e., dwelling), and, therefore, it deals with a positive relationship of the individual with its environment. This allows us to reshape environmental ethics starting from environmental ontology, and recalling the primacy of the latter on the former: the very theoretic background of an ethical view might only be a suitable interpretation of human nature and properties, starting from a relational viewpoint that may help understanding us our asymmetrical relationships with the world.

This chapter examines the potential for educators to model what Arne Naess called the ‘ecological self’ and Abraham Maslow the ‘transpersonal self’ through experiential and holistic learning. With a global education trend favouring a shift toward physical sciences, technical skill acquisition, and standardized assessment—one that mirrors neoliberal capitalism in economic and social policy, and thus disparages the value of the humanities subjects as lacking in inherent ‘utility’—the author looks at the philosophical, psychosociological, and phenomenological implications of a holistic model of education. This approach emphasizes a pedagogy from a worldview of interdependence, diversity, and intersubjectivity for learners and educators. This chapter presents the view that enhancing mutual self-reflection for teachers and learners is conducive to humane, safe, and inclusive pedagogical practices and spaces, and that this holistic approach aligns with a worldview that is non-dualistic, transhuman in orientation and leads to outcomes based on empathy, altruism, and wholeness or ‘healing.’

This chapter focuses on the “ecological self” which is concerned with the relationship of the physical self and the physical environment. The ecological self is based on perception, that is, the perceiving of information from the position of the body embedded in the physical world. The ecological self also provides clues to mental states as tied to their physical embeddings. The objective of this chapter is to propose a new concept, which we wish to term as “adapted self” in the context of disability. As sentient beings, all humans have to adapt to the world of physical and psychological spaces. In the case of subjects negotiating the corporeal experience of either physical/sensory disability, adaptation is complex. The physical body has to adapt to the physical environment and take adaptive steps to negotiate altered physical and sensory environmental conditions. The experience of disability is complex and does not end with physicality of the body. The self as the experiencer has to adapt to the psychological factors relating to disability – to structural and psycho-emotional disablism that is inevitable in a normative society which upholds and preserves the concept of the “normal body”. The “adapted self” in such contexts functions as an organizer and the executive of the multilevel adaptations made within the physical and psychological environment. Ecological self is the central basis for the “adapted self” enabling the disabled subject in the process of adjustment and adaptation.

Transforming our educational systems to support sustainable development is a challenge that involves all levels of education – policy, curriculum and pedagogical practice. One critical dimension to look at is a teacher’s identity as it influences a teacher’s decision-making, behaviour and action. The ecological self is the concept that is used in the context of sustainability. This paper discusses the emerging ecological self of one student teacher during her initial teacher education programme. The concepts of the teacher’s self and the ecological self form a lens through which the story of this student teacher is examined. The paper focuses on one part of a broader, longitudinal study of student teachers and their understanding of pedagogy and connectedness with nature in the context of the need for reorienting teacher education towards sustainability. Sterling’s (2001) conceptual framework of ecological view on education is taken as a tool to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that deep connectedness to nature and empathy are framing the holistic view on learning, teaching and a teacher’s self.

This study examines the concepts of self-realisation and the ecological self in Arne Naess’s ecosophy, which considers the manner in which human inherent potentialities are realised in educational practices. This article first elucidates the meaning of the concepts of self-realisation and the ecological self according to Naess’s work. Second, the manner of developing the ecological self is discussed by drawing on Buddhist concepts, specifically the advice in the Diamond Sutra. Third, the means of achieving self-realisation is further considered from the view of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism. Both of these Eastern philosophies posit that a clear and peaceful mind can realise the inherent potentialities of the self. With the rapid development of science and technology, education has been unconsciously jeopardised by instrumentalism and consumerism. This has endangered the constitution of modern subjectivity, and engendered an alienated relationship with nature. This article concludes with some thoughts related to this crisis. I conceive of an educational engagement for self-realisation, and argue that a bridge from self-centred to self-realisation is necessary in education.

Against the backdrop of a theory of the evolution of consciousness, this article derives the obstacles and potentials for achieving a sustainable consciousness: (1) the current framework of perceiving the world, which strongly shapes our present identity, referred to as the Modern Self. It suggests a (false) experience of separation from nature and the cosmos. (2), soul qualities from earlier developmental stages, termed the Ecological Self, can help us become more sensitive to our connection with nature and its cycles. Strengthening this aspect of ourselves is essential for fostering sustainable action. (3), relying solely on this approach would lead to a regression to an older consciousness of local connectedness. Therefore, the inner conflict between the Ecological Self and the Modern Self must be acknowledged and held. From this dialectical tension, a transformation of consciousness can arise, leading to a socio-ecological global perception. This transformation enables us to experience both our connectedness and autonomy more fully, fostering sustainable global action. I refer to this consciousness as Atmospheric.