Skip to main content
Book cover

Research Handbook on Childhoodnature pp 1–13Cite as

Childhoodnature Ecological Systems and Realities: An Outline

  • 925 Accesses

Part of the Springer International Handbooks of Education book series (SIHE)

Abstract

Ecological systems thinking is an attractive conceptual tool for understanding the complexity of the entanglement of the biological environment (ecological systems including human social systems) with the physical environment. Attention to such interactions in light of Anthropocentric system changes, and the focus of this handbook urges (re)exploration of ecological systems within childhoodnature. Accordingly, in this introduction to childhoodnature ecological systems and realities, we explore systems thinking and ecological systems, the interaction of humans within the systems and consider a posthuman turn for reconceptualising ecological systems thinking in childhoodnature.

Keywords

  • Systems thinking
  • Ecological systems
  • Socioecological

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

References

  • Braidotti, R. (2013). The posthuman. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkowitz, A. R., Ford, M. E., & Brewer, C. A. (2005). A framework for integrating ecological literacy, civics literacy, and environmental citizenship in environmental education. In E. Johnson & M. Mappin (Eds.), Environmental education and advocacy: Changing perspectives of ecology and education (pp. 227–266). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (1994). Ecological models of human development. In International encyclopedia of education (Vol. 3, 2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Elsevier. Reprinted in Gauvain, M., & Cole, M. (Eds.). (1993). Readings on the development of children (2nd ed., pp. 37–43). New York: Freeman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capra, F. (2007). Sustainable living, ecological literacy, and the breath of life. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 12(1), 9–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capra, F., & Luisi, P. L. (2014). The systems view of life: A unifying vision. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaffey, O., & Steffen, W. (2017). The anthropocene equation. The Anthropocene Review, 4(1), 53–61.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Gough, N. (1991). Narrative and nature: Unsustainable fictions in environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 7, 31–42.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Crutzen, P. J. (2002). Geology of mankind. Nature, 415(6867), 23–23.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (2015). Anthropocene, capitalocene, plantationocene, chthulucene: Making kin. Environmental Humanities, 6, 159–165.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kahn, R. (2010). Critical pedagogy, ecoliteracy, & planetary crisis. New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kyburz-Graber, R. (2013). Socioecological approaches to environmental education and research. In R. B. Stevenson, M. Brody, J. Dillon, & A. Wals (Eds.), International handbook of research on environmental education (pp. 23–32). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lovelock, J. (2000). Gaia: A new look at life on earth. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louv, R. (2011). The nature principle: Human restoration and the end of nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauro, S. E.-D. (2009). Seeing the local in the global: Political ecologies, world-systems, and the question of scale. Geoforum, 40(1), 116–125.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Merchant, C. (2016). Autonomous nature: Problems of prediction and control from ancient times to the scientific revolution. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malone, K. (2018). Children in the Anthropocene rethinking sustainability and child friendliness in cities. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murris, K. (2016). The posthuman child: Educational transformation through philosophy with picturebooks. London, England: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neimanis, A. (2017). Bodies of water: Posthuman feminist phenomenology. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikoleris, L. (2016). The estrogen receptor in fish and effects of synthetic estrogens in the environment-Ecological and evolutionary perspectives and societal awareness. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scholz, R. W. (2011). Environmental literacy in science and society: From knowledge to decisions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Swearer, D. K., & McGarry, S. L. (2011). Ecologies of human flourishing. Cambridge, MA: Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orr, D. W. (1992). Ecological literacy: Education and the transition to a postmodern world. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oxford University Press. (2018). English oxford living dictionaries. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/nature

  • Panelli, R. (2010). More-than-human social geographies: Posthuman and other possibilities. Progress in Human Geography, 34(1), 79–87.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Parkes, M. (2010). Ecohealth and aboriginal health: A review of common ground. Prince George, BC: National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterling, S. (2003). Whole systems thinking as a basis for paradigm change in education: Explorations in the context of sustainability. (Thesis submitted by David Sterling for the Degree of PhD. University of Bath).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wadsworth, Y. (2010). Building in research and evaluation: Human inquiry for living systems. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, D., Rudy, A., & Gareau, B. (2016). Environments, natures and social theory: Towards a critical hybridity. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe, C. (2010). What is posthumanism? (Vol. 8). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Steffen, W., & Crutzen, P. (2010). The new world of the Anthropocene. Environmental Science & Technology, 44(7), 2228–2231.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, M. E. (2014). From deep ecology to integral ecology: A retrospective study. Trumpeter: Journal of Ecosophy, 30(2), 247–268.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Cross University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Marianne Logan

  2. Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

    Helen Widdop Quinton

Authors
  1. Marianne Logan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Helen Widdop Quinton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Marianne Logan or Helen Widdop Quinton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Southern Cross University School of Education, Coolangatta, Queensland, Australia

    Amy Cutter-Mackenzie

  2. Centre for Educational Research, Western Sydney University Centre for Educational Research, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia

    Karen Malone

  3. Department of Education, University of Bath Department of Education, Bath, United Kingdom

    Elisabeth Barratt Hacking

Section Editor information

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and Permissions

    Copyright information

    © 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

    About this entry

    Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

    Cite this entry

    Logan, M., Widdop Quinton, H. (2018). Childhoodnature Ecological Systems and Realities: An Outline. In: Cutter-Mackenzie, A., Malone, K., Barratt Hacking, E. (eds) Research Handbook on Childhoodnature . Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_54-1

    Download citation

    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51949-4_54-1

    • Received:

    • Accepted:

    • Published:

    • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

    • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51949-4

    • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51949-4

    • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences