First Post

I was reading an article, and it had a very interesting premise. It stated that the social sciences as we know them are no longer usable, since they rely on an erring assumption: that there is a separation between the environment or nature and humanity. They use the premise that the only humans have agency compared with the static backdrop of nature. However, it is now evident that there can be no social science without bringing in the environment. As humans are now the strongest force for environmental change, it is no longer possible to separate human culture from nature. Both are inexplicably linked. It is through this connection that I feel an important change is occurring in the social sciences. They can no longer rely on the traditional forms research, but have to start integrating with other fields of study to accurately try to understand how culture is affecting the environment and how environment is affecting culture.

In geography, it is widely known that no one field has all the answers, and I personally am very happy that other fields of study are growing to accept other forms of thought into them. While there is no doubt that many people want to know all the answers, there is no way to figure them out. What we can do is try to expand our knowledge, and part of that involves in learning that all we do is interconnected. Culture and the environment, society and nature, politics and the economy. No longer can scientist look at these aspects as separate entities. They are all dynamic in nature, and each imparts a force on the other aspects, forming a large, complicated web of features.

Another important feature of this new version of social science is understanding the importance of scale. Just as culture and nature are inseparable, changes in an isolated area can lead to a profound impact in other locales, and possibly even globally. Butterfly effects are an important aspect for social change, in my opinion, and their importance should not be ignored. A single passionate person, merely talking with her friends, can create the foundation of an activist movement. This small movement could gain traction and grow, and continue growing until a national change occurs. Or an individual from this movement could move to another country and start a similar movement, and so on and so forth, until a global network of movements is formed. In the same way, a small change in the environment at one location can result in a drastic change throughout the world. The climate is a complicated circulation of energy and mass, with teleconnections causing climatic conditions around New Zealand to affect the weather in L.A., for example. These connections prove that the Earth system is immensely complex. The addition of humans, with our multitude of cultures and large scale environmental change, only serves to create a more complicated world in which to study and understand. It is in this world that social scientist endeavor to find how we can sustain or environment. This will be no easy feat, and the goal is very open ended, but it is what must be done if we wish to effectively make a change and allow us to find a way to live in harmony with the environment. Hopefully, this blog will help to educate my readers, and we can start to make the change we want to see in the world.