Towards an ecological social science? On introducing ‘social affordances’ to (some) social theory

Rasmus Birk; Nick Manning

doi:10.1080/09515089.2023.2277346

Towards an ecological social science? On introducing ‘social affordances’ to (some) social theory

Rasmus Birk^*, Nick Manning

^*Corresponding author for this work

Aalborg University CP

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper discusses the concept of social affordances in relation to social theory. Our point of departure is the growing literature which posits, in one way or another, that affordances may be seen as social, or cultural or similar. Across the literature on social affordances, it is thus emphasized how perception is shaped within human econiches, how it is fundamentally social, historical, and cultural, but limited direct engagement with decades of scholarship within the social sciences on many of these same topics. This paper thus discusses three key themes for theories of social affordances, exploring sociological perspectives on meaning, place and power, arguing that there may be a difficult, yet fruitful, potential for not just an ecological psychology, but an ecological social science.

Original language	English
Journal	Philosophical Psychology
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2023.2277346
Publication status	Published - 1 Nov 2023

Keywords

Gibson
meaning
place
power
social affordances
Social theory

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10.1080/09515089.2023.2277346

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AB - This paper discusses the concept of social affordances in relation to social theory. Our point of departure is the growing literature which posits, in one way or another, that affordances may be seen as social, or cultural or similar. Across the literature on social affordances, it is thus emphasized how perception is shaped within human econiches, how it is fundamentally social, historical, and cultural, but limited direct engagement with decades of scholarship within the social sciences on many of these same topics. This paper thus discusses three key themes for theories of social affordances, exploring sociological perspectives on meaning, place and power, arguing that there may be a difficult, yet fruitful, potential for not just an ecological psychology, but an ecological social science.

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Towards an ecological social science? On introducing ‘social affordances’ to (some) social theory

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Keywords

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