“New Tasks for Ecologists after Rio 1992”
INTECOL VII
International Congress of Ecology Florence, Italy
19 - 25 July 1998 Dr Bob Carling of Chapman and Hall and the Rev’d Nigel Cooper of the Diocese of Chelmsford, with the assistance of an advisory team, organised a symposium at this congress with the title

Concepts of Nature: the social context and ethical implications of ecology.

The rationale of the symposium we express in this way: Ecology, like other sciences, is embedded in an historical and social context. The richness of our discipline is brought out by investigations using methods from sociology, psychology and history. Often the issues raised revolve around the concept of “nature” – or rather concepts of nature, for diverse understandings have underpinned ecology which has, in turn, informed those concepts. These concepts of nature are value-laden in different ways and this leads to the ethical implications of ecology and for the doing of ecology.