Recognising humanity as part of nature (on-line)

From Object to Oikeios: Environment-Making in the Capitalist World-Ecology

A fascinating article which argues that the green movement is still largely stuck in a philosophical conception of humanity as separate from nature, whereas we need to develop a concept of humanity as part of nature, intricately bound up with our environment. To help us make this transition, the author proposes a new concept of oikeios, meaning the relationships between us and the place which supports us. Nature-as-oikeios is not offered as an additional factor, to be placed alongside culture or society or economy; it is, rather, the matrix within which all human activity unfolds. Climate, for example, is not external to human civilisation, but shapes every aspect of it.