Ecological Self

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Ecological Self
    Diversity is a whirlwind of color through a society. There are no two people in
the world that are exactly alike. Individuality distinguishes one person or
thing from others (Landau, 364 Ed). A person's environment as a whole: an
interaction with others, experiences, and time, makes a collage of traits that
distinguishes someone as an individual. David Sibley's theory of the

"Ecological Self" or Identity is bound by his determents of social,
cultural, and spatial context. Sibley believes that class, race, gender, and
nation shapes our identity, it is a single concept that is molded by our
experiences from the world. I do not agree with this claim because people are
individuals, not a development of their surroundings. Identity is not a single
concept, there are many factors that shape it, environment cannot just effect
identity. Sibley is a British sociologist that has dedicated his life to the
studies behind the "Ecological Self." Sibley claims that the "Ecological

Self" is not internal, it cannot be separated from the physical. "The social
positioning of the self means that the boundary between self and other is formed
through a series of cultural representations of people and things which
frequently elide so that the non-human world also provides a context for
selfhood (Sibley, 250)." The "other," that is being spoken of, is also
known as the "Generalized Other." This is when we cannot separate from the
physical and consider it to be the norm. How do I ...

Submitted by: freeessay
Date Submitted: 12-17-01 7:24am
Category: Social Issues
Words: 641
Pages: 2.56