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popular education for a free society
Harbinger, A Journal of Social Ecology, publishes analysis relevant to the growing social ecology movement and news of the activities of the Institute for Social Ecology (ISE). It is our intention to explore the theory and practice needed to help to create an ecological society, and to cultivate a generous intellectual outlook that can inform the principle of hope. Just as the outlook proposed by social ecology is concerned with both what is and what ought to be, so too is Harbinger and we will explore the tensions between the two. The central questions we address in the pages of Harbinger regard the process with which we must engage to create an ecological society, a society free of hierarchy and domination in all of its forms.
A harbinger is a messenger, or a sign indicating that a major event or change is coming. It was the name given to the journal published by Emerson, the Alcotts, Thoreau and other New England transcendentalists associated with Brook Farm in the 19th century. The name was revived in the early 1980's by the ISE for our literary and philosophical journal. In it's current incarnation Harbinger will continue the tradition of critically examining theory and practice, will attempt to bring you stimulating work by talented authors, and, in addition, will update you on the important work of the ISE. Our intention is to publish twice a year and we invite your comments and contributions. While Harbinger will entertain many points of view, our primary focus will be on a clarification and expansion of those ideas and practices that contribute to social ecology. We encourage passionate discourse tempered by rationality and a radical intent-nothing less than the transformation of our destructive, anti-ecological society.
Harbinger is a utopian project but not utopia in the sense of
an unachievable cloud-cuckoo land, rather what we explore are utopian
ideas rooted in real existing potentialities. In the words of social ecologist
Murray Bookchin we seek to "Be realistic and do the impossible, because
if we don't do the impossible, we face the unthinkable." Harbinger
will examine ideas that can allow us to transcend the given, to expand
our intellectual frameworks, to give voice to our highest aspirations
and our dreams for a decentralized, directly democratic, mutualistic and
ecological society.
Social Ecology n 1: a coherent radical critique of current social, political, and anti-ecological trends. 2: a reconstructive, ecological, communitarian, and ethical approach to society.
Published by the Institute for
Social Ecology