Panel: HOW INTEGRAL ECOLOGY AS A PARADIGM IS RESHAPING INDIVIDUALS' BEHAVIOURS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND SOCIETIES



1249_2.6 - INTEGRAL ECOLOGY: INTERDISCIPLINARY SOLUTIONS AND THE PRINCIPLE OF THE COMMON GOOD

AUTHORS:
Mwangi N.J.N. (PONTIFICAL ANTONIANUM UNIVERSITY ~ ROME ~ Italy)
Text:
Integral ecology is now among the most prominent paradigms of the modern environmental ethics and sustainability literature. In contrast to more traditional models where the primary emphasis is on conservation or technological solutions to a given ecological issue, integral ecology introduces a more holistic perspective. This approach appreciates how the environmental systems, economic systems, social institutions, and the cultural values are interconnected. The paradigm was known worldwide when Pope Francis gave an encyclical titled Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home which expressed a holistic vision between social justice and human dignity and environmental sustainability. The paper also looks critically at how integral ecology transforms human behavior at the individual level, organizational practices, and has an effect on the larger societal structures. The emphasis is on the interdisciplinary work of environmental philosophy, sustainability science, ecological economics, and governance studies is evident in integral ecology. The paper would suggest that integral ecology stimulates ethical environmental awareness of individuals, responsible leadership and sustainability-oriented approaches of companies, and systemic change of economic and political institutions. The analysis also shows that integral ecology offers a normative and conceptual approach that can offer solutions to complicated, global issues of climate change, disappearance of biodiversity, unsustainable development, and socio-economic inequality. Finally, the paradigm itself is the change in the approach to the environment divided into fragments, a systematic view of the world where human well-being, social justice, and environmental sustainability cannot be separated.