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Ecotechnology

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Ecotechnology is an applied science that seeks to fulfill human needs while causing minimal ecological disruption, by harnessing and manipulating natural forces to leverage their beneficial effects. Ecotechnology integrates two fields of study: the 'ecology of technics' and the 'technics of ecology,' requiring an understanding of the structures and processes of ecosystems and societies. All sustainable engineering that can reduce damage to ecosystems, adopt ecology as a fundamental basis, and ensure conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development may be considered as forms of ecotechnology.[citation needed]

Ecotechnology emphasizes approaching a problem from a holistic point of view; for example, holding that environmental remediation of rivers should not only consider one single area but the whole catchment area, which includes the upstream, middle-stream, and downstream sections.[citation needed]

The construction industry can, in the ecotechnology view, reduce its impact on nature by consulting experts on the environment.[citation needed]

Ecotechnics

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During Ecotechnics '95 - International Symposium on Ecological Engineering in Östersund, Sweden, the participants agreed on the definition: "Ecotechnics is defined as the method of designing future societies within ecological frames."

Ecotechnics is defined as the 'techne' of bodies.[clarification needed] Ecotechnics thinks of the body as a technology which makes possible[among whom?] the inclusion of a whole new range of bodies[dubious – discuss]. This gives people[who?] more agency and biopower over their own use of their bodies.[citation needed] This makes it usable[among whom?] for queer theory and disability studies.[citation needed] An interpretation[among whom?] also refers to the term as the craft of the home.[1][failed verification] In classifying the body as a technical object,[clarification needed] Jean-Luc Nancy explained how it works by partitioning bodies[clarification needed] into their own zones[clarification needed] and spaces[clarification needed], which also allow such bodies to connect with other bodies.[2][clarification needed] Hence, Nancy claims that technology determine our interactions with other beings[who?] in the world.[clarification needed][2] Ecotechnics is also central[among whom?] in Sullivan's and Murray's collection of essays Queering the Technologisation of Bodies.[citation needed] It is built[by whom?] on Bernard Stiegler's work that sees the body and technology as a double process: the technology and the body are informed by each other.[citation needed] Derrida who extends on both Nancy and Stiegler's ideas argues that the 'proper body' implicates[among whom?] interconnections of technical additions.[clarification needed] Ecotechnics goes against the essentialist and binary notion of the body[citation needed] as a technological object which positions it within post-structuralism.[citation needed] The body can only be understood[by whom?] within its environment and this environment is a technical one.[citation needed]

Nancy also applied the ecotechnics concept to contemporary issues such as war and globalization. He maintained, for instance, that modern conflicts are produced by the dividing lines between: North and South; rich and poor; and, integrated and excluded.[3] He also believes that ecotechnics is undoing communities due to the elimination of the polis and the prevalence of oikos, calling for a global sovereignty that would administer the world as a single household.[4]

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See also

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References

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  • J. Nancy (2008). Corpus. Fordham University Press. ISBN 9780823229628.
  1. ^ Greer, John Michael (1 October 2009). The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World. New Society Publishers. ISBN 9781550924398.
  2. ^ a b Ash, James (2016). The Interface Envelope: Gaming, Technology, Power. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 109. ISBN 9781623564599.
  3. ^ Devisch, Ignaas (2013). Jean-Luc Nancy and the Question of Community. London: Bloomsbury. p. 141. ISBN 9781441165626.
  4. ^ Curtis, Neal (2006). War and Social Theory: World, Value and Identity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 161. ISBN 9781403933713.

Further reading

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  • Allenby, B.R., and D.J. Richards (1994), The Greening of Industrial Ecosystems. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.
  • Braungart, M., and W. McDonough (2002). Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. North Point Press, ISBN 0865475873.
  • Huesemann, Michael H., and Joyce A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won't Save Us or the Environment, Chapter 13, "The Design of Environmentally Sustainable and Appropriate Technologies", New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, ISBN 0865717044, 464 pp.
  • Von Weizsacker, E.U., C. Hargroves, M.H. Smith, C. Desha, and P. Stasinopoulos (2009). Factor Five: Transforming the Global Economy through 80% Improvements in Resource Productivity, Routledge.
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