Social Practice is Biophysical Process, or Communication is Ecological

In the 1st volume of the Environmental Communication Yearbook; Peterson, Peterson, and Grant explore the relationship between what they call (inspired by Luhmann), "social practice and biophysical process."

They study how human social systems co-evolve with ecological systems.

They make clear that social systems exist by and through communicative practice. And that social systems emerge from and exist within their environmental systems.

Thus, communicative practice influences and guides environmental change and vice versa.

Which is just another way to say that human social systems co-evolve with ecological systems.

The strands of Western tradition that trace themselves to Plato and Descarte, have made plausible the idea that our thoughts are somehow wholely disconnected from the real world. Peirce once commented that Hegel "had made the trifilng oversight of forgetting the real world exists."

This tendency in Western thought toward dualism has been roundly criticized. Alternatives from Buddhism to Rortian "anti-dualism" exist.

Indeed, social practice IS a biophysical process because humans are "live creatures" that exist in "trasactional relationships" with their environment. We can tell because we leave a metabolic footprint behind. We leave evidence of our transactions with the environment--residue in the historical record.