A sociological perspective asks—what makes this contradiction possible? One answer, as the
anonymous reviewer of this article pointed out, is that there are social institutions, such as money,
that mediate the relationships between organizations and ecological systems. Environmental sociologists
have noted how the dimensions of time and space in social processes distort the relationship
between organizations and the material environment. Schnaiberg (1980, p. 15) notes that the apparent
evasion of the laws of thermodynamics by humans is a result of “learning to operate across
ecosystems and to view their sociocultural productions as nested in a set of different principles—
economic, not ecological.” Enabling this operation across ecosystems, space, and time is the social
institution of money, the translation of material resources into a unit that expresses economic value.
This translation disembodies the material basis of organizations, turning trees into abstract input
costs on spreadsheets.
A sociological perspective asks—what makes this contradiction possible? One answer, as theanonymous reviewer of this article pointed out, is that there are social institutions, such as money,that mediate the relationships between organizations and ecological systems. Environmental sociologistshave noted how the dimensions of time and space in social processes distort the relationshipbetween organizations and the material environment. Schnaiberg (1980, p. 15) notes that the apparentevasion of the laws of thermodynamics by humans is a result of “learning to operate acrossecosystems and to view their sociocultural productions as nested in a set of different principles—economic, not ecological.” Enabling this operation across ecosystems, space, and time is the socialinstitution of money, the translation of material resources into a unit that expresses economic value.This translation disembodies the material basis of organizations, turning trees into abstract inputcosts on spreadsheets.
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