Energetic structuration of society : energy relations of social organization in Herbert Spencer's social theory
Halonen, Tommi (2018)
2018
Yhteiskuntatutkimuksen tutkinto-ohjelma - Degree Programme in Social Sciences
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2018-10-18
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201810222730
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201810222730
Tiivistelmä
How societies are energized is significant for their organization. The present, highly mobile and global social relations are made possible by – and therefore also highly dependent of – massive energy surpluses contained in fossil fuels. Even though global issues, such as peak oil and climate change, question the sustainability of our present mode of living, energy related issues are only slowly starting to make their way to sociological analyses. Existing sociological energy research is also largely lacking theoretical perspectives and orientations.
The thesis suggests that to develop such a theory, it is useful to go back to the work of Herbert Spencer who placed energy at the center of his social theory. The main goal of the thesis is to explore how Spencer treats the energy relations of social organization, and to what extent his ideas and concepts resonate with more recent sociological research on energy and climate change. To pursue this goal, the thesis focuses on Spencer’s main work, namely to The System of Synthetic Philosophy, which also presents Spencer’s analytic-sociological side, and is relatively – or almost completely – free from normative stances.
The main conclusion of thesis is that Spencer offers a comprehensive system theoretical framework which expands the sociological imagination to better discover the energetic constitution of our complex path dependent global organization. In addition, some of the key notions of contemporary authors, such as those having to do with ecosocial vitalism, energy flows and surpluses, sociotechnical systems, and systems thinking and (locked) feedback loops are fruitfully theorized already by Spencer. Therefore, Spencer’s concepts have value also to contemporary sociological energy research.
The thesis suggests that to develop such a theory, it is useful to go back to the work of Herbert Spencer who placed energy at the center of his social theory. The main goal of the thesis is to explore how Spencer treats the energy relations of social organization, and to what extent his ideas and concepts resonate with more recent sociological research on energy and climate change. To pursue this goal, the thesis focuses on Spencer’s main work, namely to The System of Synthetic Philosophy, which also presents Spencer’s analytic-sociological side, and is relatively – or almost completely – free from normative stances.
The main conclusion of thesis is that Spencer offers a comprehensive system theoretical framework which expands the sociological imagination to better discover the energetic constitution of our complex path dependent global organization. In addition, some of the key notions of contemporary authors, such as those having to do with ecosocial vitalism, energy flows and surpluses, sociotechnical systems, and systems thinking and (locked) feedback loops are fruitfully theorized already by Spencer. Therefore, Spencer’s concepts have value also to contemporary sociological energy research.