Ecology of ideas and ecology's ideas

Purpose – The assumption of ecological thinking as a main ideology for social systems implies many relevant changes concerning the relation between social and ecological systems. Changes meaning a deep redefinition of goals and strategies pursued for centuries by human communities, like the uncertainty reduction in relation to resources’ availability and management, defence respect to variance in ecological system’s as well as its constraint within social systems themselves. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of literature and critic perspectives allows to highlight different aspects of the imagined transition toward an ecologically informed social organisation. Some considerations will be presented about obstacles to change in social systems as well as about the different levels of response to solicitations coming from ecological thinking and ecological issues. Findings – Many of the considered theoretical proposals lead to assume that those solicitations and the subsequent responses would impact directly on fundamental sets of rights and freedoms, today considered as untouchable. Research limitations/implications – The establishment of an ecological state – at least as described here – even if it appears as a desirable perspective, it would pass through a re-design of the concept of citizenship as well as of the relation between individuals and social institutions. Originality/value – The paper tries a definition of the main theoretical topics to be assessed, hoping they may be a useful base for future search.