Download full text
(461.3Kb)
Citation Suggestion
Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.48.2023.08
Exports for your reference manager
On the Mutual Historical Dynamics of Societies' Political Governance Systems and their Sources of Energy: The Approach of the Vienna School of Social Ecology
Zur wechselseitigen historischen Dynamik der politischen Steuerungssysteme von Gesellschaften und ihrer Energiequellen: Der Ansatz der Vienna School of Social Ecology
[journal article]
Abstract This article combines a brief overview of the theoretical approach of the Vienna School of Social Ecology with a report on the results of a long-term study on the coincidence of countries' first access to fossil fuels with social revolutions. The theoretical approach views societies in a system-theo... view more
This article combines a brief overview of the theoretical approach of the Vienna School of Social Ecology with a report on the results of a long-term study on the coincidence of countries' first access to fossil fuels with social revolutions. The theoretical approach views societies in a system-theoretical perspective as hybrids of materiality and meaning, with "social metabolism" and "colonization of nature" as key links. Historical changes in the energy metabolism of societies are viewed as key drivers of change in social organization, distinguishing broadly between foraging and agrarian societies, both solar based energetically, but distinct by the latter applying elaborate colonization technologies that allow for higher energy returns at the price of a higher labor burden, the emergence of cities, and land-based steep social hierarchies. Finally, we report on a series of studies on the coincidence of countries' access to fossil fuels as allowing a transition to in-dustrial societies, again on a much higher energy level. The very early transition phase ("critical energy transition period"), as we show empirically for a large number of countries worldwide across the past 500 years, was typically marked by what we characterize as social revolutions. Finally, we ask what societal changes a next energy transition, required to avoid catastrophic climate change, will bring about.... view less
Keywords
social ecology; energy production; energy source; economic development (on national level); agrarian society; industrial society; transition; human-environment relationship
Classification
History
Ecology, Environment
Free Keywords
systemic society-nature interactions; socio-metabolic regimes; fossil fuels; revolutions; Vienna School of Social Ecology; social metabolism; colonization of nature; agrarian regimes; industrial regime; transformation; political governance systems; energy
Document language
English
Publication Year
2023
Page/Pages
p. 170-189
Journal
Historical Social Research, 48 (2023) 1
Issue topic
Long-Term Processes in Human History
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed