Topic
What makes Ecologism distinctive and an Ideology – A Dobson POV
Instructions
Essay 1:
Read “Dobson.pdf”
Andrew Dobson, in his chapter ‘Thinking about ecologism’ says that he “will build on two points established in the Introduction: first, that ecologism is not the same as environmentalism, and second, that environmentalism is not a political ideology.” (2007: 10)
What, according to Dobson, makes ecologism both distinctive and an ideology?
(400 words)
Essay 2:
Read “Pateman.pdf”.
In The Sexual Contract, Carole Pateman argues that: “The genius of contract theorists has been to present both the original contract and actual contracts as exemplifying and securing individual freedom. On the contrary, in contract theory universal freedom is always an hypothesis, a story, a political fiction. Contract always generates political right in the form of relations of domination and subordination.” (Pateman 1988: 8)
What, according to Carole Pateman, are the patriarchal and gendered characteristics of these fictional and real contracts. How do they “create […] civil mastery and civil subordination.”? (1988: 7)
(400 words)
Answer Preview
Ecologism is a unique ideology because it fits the three required features of a subject for it to be considered an ideology. First, ecologism is an ideology because it offers an analytical description of the society in a way that users easily find their way around the political world. This refers to the state where an ideology must be described based on whatever problem being confronted, and how it is related to a human condition (Dobson, 2007). A good example is the tendency to assume that climate change is as a result of inappropriate technologies used in energy production. Ecologism unearths that climate change is as a result of all players in a biotic and abiotic community.
Word Count: 500