Environmental extension: promoting ecological citizenship.

Abstract

While acknowledging the importance of the discussion around ecological citizenship with regard to institutions, policies and social norms, in this paper I propose to focus on the individual, considering the capacities that need to be in place to promote pro-active environmental citizens. As an agronomist, concerned with the transformations of the environment through diverse farming processes, I am debating with the question of why people act the way they do toward the environment. From this perspective, the discussion of environmental ethics becomes pivotal. In this paper, I discuss ethics from an environmental pragmatism standpoint. This approach allows me to focus on the human relationship with non-human nature--important when considering farming--instead of focusing solely on an ideal state of nature. Environmental pragmatism acknowledges our unity with nature, pluralism, and the freedom necessary to structure responsible action. The paper's reflection on ethics encompasses reflexivity regarding our relationship with the environment, as well as care and responsibility for it. These are aspects that arise only in the presence of both a critical consciousness regarding our behaviour and an awareness of our humanness--our essence of being human--not as superior beings, but as beings capable of making conscious choices and learning. Therefore I propose that, along with the development of environmental laws, we emphasize the promotion of environmental ethics, through learning processes involving reflection upon our role in the environment. Considering some experiences in rural areas with farmers, I bring forth some suggestions that include not only the promotion of a formal knowledge of one's environment, but as well a continuous reflection on the concrete actions taken in that environment and their potential impacts, establishing the basis for what I propose to call "environmental extension."

Tout en reconnaissant l'importance du debat autour d'une citoyennete ecologique en ce qui a trait aux institutions, aux politiques et aux normes sociales, dans cet article, je me propose de me concentrer sur la personne, compte tenu des capacites qui doivent etre en place pour promouvoir une citoyennete environnementale proactive chez les gens. A titre d'agronome, preoccupee par les transformations qu'imposent a l'environnement les divers processus agricoles, je me demande pourquoi les gens agissent comme ils le font envers l'environnement. De ce point de vue, le debat sur I'ethique environnementale devient determinant. Dans cet article, j'analyse l'ethique du point de vue du pragmatisme environnemental. Cette approche me permet de me concentrer sur la relation de l'humain avec la nature--primordiale dans le cas de l'agriculture--plutot que de mettre l'accent sur un etat ideal de la nature. Le pragmatisme environnemental reconnait notre unite avec la nature, le pluralisme et la liberte necessaires pour structurer une action responsable. La reflexion sur I'ethique contenue dans cet article contient une introspection au sujet de la relation que nous entretenons avec I'environnement, et du soin et de la responsabilite que nous en prenons. Ce sont la des aspects qui resultent seulement en presence d'une prise de conscience critique concernant notre comportement et d'une reconnaissance de notre etat ou de notre essence d'etre humain, non en tant qu'etres superieurs, mais en tant qu'etres capables d'apprendre et de faire des choix conscients. C'est pourquoi je propose que parallelement a l'elaboration de lois environnementales, nous mettions l'accent sur la promotion d'une ethique environnementale par le biais de processus d'apprentissage qui comprennent notamment une reflexion sur le role que nous jouons vis-a-vis de l'environnement. Compte tenu de certaines experiences dans les regions rurales avec les agriculteurs, j'elabore des suggestions qui ne concernent pas uniquement la promotion d'un savoir formel au sujet de son environnement, mais aussi une reflexion continue sur les actions concretes que l'on peut prendre dans cet environnement et sur leur incidence eventuelle, etablissant ainsi les fondements de ce que je propose de nommer extension environnementale.

Keywords

Ecological citizenship, environmental ethics, environmental extension, learning, humanism

Introduction

The concept of ecological citizenship is a result of our current concern with the state of the natural environment. For me, it immediately prompts reflections on personal daily actions, involving choices, priorities, and specific utopias which take place in this net of interactions with our fellow human beings and the environment surrounding us. Therefore a discussion on ecological citizenship should be grounded in environmental ethics, and more specifically, in our awareness of our humanness and everything it encompasses. This paper starts with the description of the concept of ecological citizenship, which underpins the discussion. Then, the concept of environmental ethics is discussed, emphasizing its influence on the construction of an ecological citizenship. The paper concludes with the proposal of environmental extension, as a process to promote ecological citizenship. Two different experiences with farmers in southern Brazil will exemplify some aspects of this process.

Ecological citizenship

The concept of ecological citizenship is an outcome of the current concern with the state of our environment, offering a way of expressing the shared responsibility of all individuals and institutions for it. This paper proceeds from the assumption that there is agreement on the need for an ecological citizenship; therefore, I will briefly state and explain the characteristics of ecological citizenship that ground this discussion, which considers that:

Ecological citizenship deals in the currency of non-contractual

responsibility, it inhabits the private as well as the public

sphere, it refers to the source, rather the nature of responsibility

to determine what counts as citizenship virtues, it works with the

language of virtue, and it is explicitly non-territorial (Dobson

2003:89).

Non-territoriality

The non-territoriality of Dobson's ecological citizenship is grounded in the interconnectedness and interdependency among societies and environments. This issue is twofold. First, we need to consider that the ecological constituents of ecosystems--water, soil, fauna and flora--have their own spatial dynamics. All ecosystem elements are interwoven, and follow a chain of influences not obstructed by a human community, state or national boundary. Second, the idea of non-territoriality also encompasses what Dobson calls our ecological 'space'. The industrial dynamics, the consumption patterns and the mobility that characterize contemporary societies make us all not only dependent but also influencing agents on environments we are not even aware of. Communities that live in complete isolation from the rest of the world are rare. Food, clothing, and implements cross lands and oceans, creating multinational households. Many goods used in households around the world are produced in other places, and hence have impacts on social and natural environments at a great distance from the place where they are consumed. While this paper shares Dobson's understanding of non-territoriality in ecological and social relations, it is nevertheless important to acknowledge the centrality of place-based or territorial identity, mediated through culture, in feeding a feeling of belonging and care for our homes, which is certainly an important aspect in the construction of citizenship.

Private and public spheres

Most discussions on citizenship relate to the public realm. While still emphasizing the public sphere, Dobson also stresses the importance of the private setting for the development and the expression of an ecological citizenship. "First, private acts can have public implications (...) and second, some of the virtues (...), care and compassion in particular, with their unconditional and non-reciprocal character--are characteristic of ideal-typical versions of private realm relationships" (Dobson 2003: 135). It is in the private realm, especially within the family, that the values underpinning ecological citizenship are first developed. It is there where we learn--or fail to learn--about the Other and about our position in the world. It is there where we learn what the priorities in our lives are, and how to interact with our social and natural environments. Further, the choices we make in the private setting not only influence the environment, but are an expression of our values vis-a-vis ecological issues.

[H]umans transform their environment in order to produce and

reproduce their daily lives. In this sense, the reality of the human

situation lies at the heart of my notion of ecological citizenship

(Dobson 2003:122).