The Social Metabolism - González de Molina, Manuel

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Résumé :
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.

Biographie:
Manuel Gonz?lez 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)...

Sommaire:

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.