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Reframing Relationships Between Humans
and the Earth: An Ecosystem Approach
André F. Pilon
University of São
Paulo
Academy of
Science, Health &
Ecology
UNCCD / SPI
Committee
Member
2
The Bubbles or the Boiling Pot?
Dealing with the Real Problems
The problems are not in
the surface’s ‘bubbles’
(object of market-place,
mass-media headlines or
academic formats), but
arise deep inside the
boiling pot, object of
the entanglement of
environmental, cultural,
political, economic and
social counteractions.
3
Reframing Relationships Between
Humans and the Earth
How could recover of Earth (regeneration,
retrieval) uphold the recover of humans?
How could recover of humans (regeneration,
retrieval) uphold the recover of Earth?
How to engage people as political, economic
and social actors to trigger change?
How to preserve biodiversity, biomes and land
to live better in a better world?
4
Triggering the Events in the Four
Dimensions of Being in the World
INTIMATE
(individuals)
INTERACTIVE
(groups) SOCIAL
(society)
BIOPHYSICAL
(environment)
5
The Four Dimensions’ Interplay
The Four Dimensions’ Interplay
in the Fabric of the Events
in the Fabric of the Events
Bulding
Bulding a Cathedral
a Cathedral
Going to the Moon / A Soccer Game
Going to the Moon / A Soccer Game
Intimate: Subjectivity
+
Interactive:Relationships
+
Social: Institutions
+
Biophysical: Environment
Technologies
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Dimensions’ Interplay
Dimensions’ Interplay
in Poor Livelihoods Conditions
in Poor Livelihoods Conditions
INTIMATE
Lack of
Resilience
+
INTERACTIVE
Group
Marginalization
+
SOCIAL
Cultural
Vulnerabilities
+
-BIOPHYSICAL
Unhealthy
Environments
7
Combining the Four Dimensions
(Deficits / Assets / Goals / Outputs)
To
elicit
the events (deficits/assets);
To
cope
with the consequences (desired/
undesired);
To
uphold
the changes (potential outputs).
• Intimate
: motives, values, capabilities
• Interactive: relationships, allegiances
• Social: political, economic, cultural
• Biophysical: natural/built environments
8
Aspects to Consider when Dealing with
Lock-ins and Barriers to Change
Prevailing paradigms of growth, power,
wealth, work and freedom embedded into the
social, economic, technological. political,
cultural and educational systems.
Institutional capacity, judicial neutrality,
informational transparency and social spaces
for civic engagement.
Equilibrium, balance standing between the
different dimensions of being in the world.
9
Effects of Technologies and Social
Institutions on Quality of Life
“To build a sustainable society we need to
redesign technologies and social institutions
to bridge the gap between human design and
the sustainable systems of nature”.
UNESCO-EOLSS Joint Committee Warning
“Three to five percent of elites at the top
of influence (military, economic, political,
educational and cultural in the media, arts,
entertainment, would be enough to shift the
mindset of the larger population”.
Collins and Makowsky
10
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12
“Development” and “Progress” on
Man-Environment Relationships
“Primitive” Versus “Civilised” Environmental Impacts
13
Intimate Dimension
PROJECT OF LIFE
COGNITION/AFFECTION
AWARENESS, RESILIENCE
SELF-ESTEEM, CORE BELIEFS
EXISTENTIAL CONTROL
CULTURE, EDUCATION
COPING ABILITIES
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Interactive Dimension
AFFILIATIONS
BINDINGS AND GRIDS
GROUPS, PEERS, NETWORKS
SHARED VALUES, BELIEFS
FAMILY, FRIENDSHIPS
ASSOCIATIONS
COMMUNITIES
15
Social Dimension
LAW
INSTITUTIONS
PUBLIC POLICIES
CULTURAL PRODUCTS
PUBLIC PLACES, HEALTH,
EDUCATION, SECURITY,
WORK, LEISURE
MASS-MEDIA
16
Biophysical Dimension
LAND,
WATER, AIR
LIVING ORGANISMS
MATTER AND ENERGY
BIOLOGICAL ENDOWMENT
LANDSCAPES, ARTEFACTS,
NATURAL AND BUILT
ENVIRONMENTS
TERRITORIES
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Dealing with Problems
in the Ecosystemic Approach
Problems are assessed inside the “boiling pot”,
and not reduced to the “bubbles” or fragmented
representations of reality,
Problems are defined in view of the dynamic
configurations intertwining the four dimensions
of being-in-the-world.
Dimensions are analysed as mutual donors and
recipients, in view of their connections or
ruptures along space and time.
The singularity (identity) of each dimension and
the their mutual support (reciprocity) are
concurrent and complementary aspects.
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A Four-Dimensional Ecosystemic
Framework for Planning and Evaluation
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Role of the Four Dimensions
in Health-Related Problems
Health
Problems
Intimate
Subjective
Well-Being
Interactive
Group
Dynamics
Social
Collective
Well-Fare
Biophysica
Milieu and
Beings
Exogenous
Depression
Broken
Project of
Life)
Lack of
Social
Bonds
Cultural
Economic
Difficulties
Built and
Natural
Hazards
Sexually
Transmitted
Diseases
Education
Existential
Control
Fidelity or
Defiance
(Boasting)
Public
Policies
Mass-Media
Physical
Protection
(Condons)
Adolescent
Pregnancy
Self-
Esteem
Maturity
Family
Cohesion
Companio
n
Education
Schooling
Exclusion
Spaces
Settlement
Facilities
Drug-
Addiction
Violence
Emotional
Balance
Resiliency
Group
Values
and Pacts
Inclusion
Cultural
Models
Dwellings
and
Settlement
20
Equilibrium Versus Disruption
in two Models of Culture
NON-
ECOSYSTEMIC
Dimensions
Drift Apart
INTIMATE SOCIAL
DISRUPTION
BIOPHYSICAL INTERACTIVE
ECOSYSTEMIC
Dimensions are
Intertwined
INTIMATE BIO
PHYSICAL
SOCIAL
INTER
ACTIVE
21
Dimensions’ Reciprocity in the
Ecosystemic Model of Culture
Dimensions as Donors
Recipient
Dimension INTIMATE INTER-
ACTIVE SOCIAL BIO-
PHYSICAL
INTIMATE
Creativeness
creativity
Support
support
Services:
services
Vitality
vitality
INTER-
ACTIVE
TERACTIVE
altruism team-
work alliances
Niches
niches
SOCIAL
OCIAL
citizen-
ship
partner-
ships
Organisation
equity
Spaces
spaces
BIO-
PHYSICAL
Care:
care
Preservation
defence sustain-
ability
Equilibrium
balance
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Dimensions’ Disruptions in the
Non-Ecosystemic Model of Culture
Dimensions as Inflictors
Suffering
Dimension INTIMATE INTER-
ACTIVE SOCIAL BIO-
PHYSICAL
INTIMATE
Creativeness
solipsism
Support
subjection
Services:
neglect
Vitality
harm
INTER-
ACTIVE
TERACTIVE
egotism fanaticism
Diversity:
co-opting
Niches
dispersal
SOCIAL
OCIAL
abuse
Organisation Spaces
extinction
BIO-
PHYSICAL
Care: Preservation
damage spoliation un-
balance
corporatism tyranny
injury
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Violence and Peace
in two Models of Culture
.
PEACE
Caring
Enabling healthy
differences
morbid
differences
Spoiling
Blocking
VIOLENCE
ECOSYSTEMIC
Differences
contribute to
conviviality
Hope,
justice,
creativity,
biodiversity,
social trust
NON-
ECOSYSTEMIC
Differences
foster
conflicts
Corruption,
inequities,
environmental
decay,
illnesses,
crime, despair
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Working with the Socio-Cultural
Learning Niches
Niches are “new structures”, protective spaces
for “path breaking innovations”, having three
functions in the transition processes: “shielding,
nurturing and empowering” (Smith and Raven).
A small core of agents emerges within the
system as the incumbent for innovation,
emergent structures form around niches for
their development and the emergence of niche-
regimes” (Frantzeskaki and Loorbach).
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Enabling Awareness in the
Socio-Cultural Learning Niches
By participatory, heuristic-hermeneutic
processes, alternative configurations for
being-in-the-world are elicited as people
reflect about their own reality
(internal/external) and develop new
capabilities to understand and influence the
course of the events.
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Creating Sustainable Changes in the
Socio-Cultural Learning Niches
The forms of being in
the world can be
unveiled by intermediary
objects, things, images
that catch the eyes.
Subject-object relations
are disclosed, world
visions are unveiled and
shared.
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Intimate Dimension
Unveiling Subject-Object
Relationships
Current forms of being-in-the-world,
world visions, epistemic positions, can
be unveiled by presentation of
intermediary objects.
Participants can write in non-
identified pieces of paper whatever
comes to their minds (subsequently
exchanged within the group).
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Interactive Dimension
Sharing Perceptions in the Group
The participants share the content of
the written statements (distributed
out of sort), by reading them aloud.
The process goes beyond individual
initial experience, it is enriched by the
participants different perceptions,
now aware of what others pointed out.
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Social Dimension
Creating New Forms of
Being-in-the-World
Ecosystemic and non-ecosystemic forms of
being-in-the-world are unveiled.
Economical, political, cultural, social and
environmental consequences are analysed.
Paradigms of work, power, wealth, growth
and freedom are confronted in view of the
environment and the state of the world.
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Biophysical Dimension
Reassessment of Concepts and Actions
The natural and built environment is
perceived as the result of the entanglement of
all dimensions of being in the world.
Vital processes and needs, relationships
between all forms of life, consequences of
humans activities and life experiences are
examined and evaluated.
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Epistemic, Thematic and Pragmatic
Analysis of the Participants’ Outputs
Outputs are analyzed from an
epistemic
(subject-object relationships). a
thematic
(explicit content) and a
pragmatic
(strategies)
standpoint.
E
pistemic
analysis
(
“how”) refers to the
structure of thought;
thematic
analysis (“what”)
to the emphasis and inclusiveness of the
dimensions of being in the world;
pragmatic
analysis (actions) to the embedded outputs.
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Epistemic Analysis
Subject-Object Relationships
Common-sense
: Adherence to established,
stereotyped preconceptions.
Academic
: reduction to logical categories,
describing to achieve closure.
Dependency
: Trust on exterior authority to
qualify own experience.
Resistance
: Refusal to being involved, failure
to see meaning in the experience.
Dogmatism
: Compliance to fixed paradigms for
being-in-the-world.
Appropriation
: alteration of cognitive,
affective and conative processes.
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Thematic Analysis
Contents in the Four Dimensions
Intimate
Description of the experience
in view of own expectations and desires.
Interactive
Description of the experience in
view of the relationships with other people.
Social
Description of the experience in
view of political-economical-social aspects.
Biophysical
Description of the experience in
view of the natural and built environments.
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Selected Statements in a
Socio-Cultural Learning Niche
1) “Three black seeds, three elastically connected bottle caps,
three white river stones and a heart shaped, dried, open seed
pot lay in a white rectangular open top plastic container;
remains of living plants, time worn rocks and man-made metal
objects represent earth materials”
2) “Box having within: 3 bottle caps tied up by an elastic string
(it may suggest interaction, integration, inter-personal
communication, horizontality); a seashell, 3 pink stones (it may
suggest compartment, non integration between parts); a ribbon
of paper with the inscription: how many parts have a grain? (it
may suggest the type of information discussed, interaction).”
3) “I wonder what type of music these items make; was/is the
heart-shaped thing good to eat?; what are the little "black
beans”?, how were the holes drilled in the pop tops?; what kind
of soda are the 2 unfamiliar?”
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The Ecosystemic Approach:
Conclusions and Policy Lessons
Development of public policies, community
projects, research and teaching programmes must
combine all the dimensions of the world.
Individuals, groups, society, natural and built
environments should be considered in view of their
singularity and reciprocity.
Quality of life, physical, social and mental well-
being, natural and built environments, are by-
products of ecosystemic models of culture.
Current concepts of power, growth, wealth, work
and freedom must be changed to face the problems
of difficult settlement in the world.
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Selected Publications
Pilon, A. F., Returning Earth to Mankind and Mankind to
Earth: An Ecosystemic Approach to Advocacy, Public
Policies, Research and Teaching Programmes:
https://week.openrecognition.org/2018/09/27/returning-
earth-to-mankind-and-mankind-to-earth-an-ecosystemic-
approach-to-advocacy-public-policies-research-and-
teaching-programmes/
PILON, A. F., Is your own house on fire? Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335797149_
Is_your_own_house_on_fire
PILON, A. F., Governance, Science-Policy Interfaces,
Societal Organisation and the Transition to an
Ecosystemic Model of Culture, Univ. Lib. of Munich, MPRA
Paper 85783, 2018: https://mpra.ub.uni-
muenchen.de/85783/1/MPRA_paper_85783.pdf
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The author welcomes
contributions to develop
new approaches to
environmental problems,
quality of life and the
state of the world.
How to face blockages and
barriers and develop ‘loci
of hope’ for achieving an
equitable future?
Thank you.
André F. Pilon
E-mail:
gaiarine@usp.br