What can we learn from Julius Gyula Fábos, an admirable socio-ecological scholar-practitioner?

Abstract

We envision that when in the future greenway systems are mapped for the United States, Canada, or any other country, they will be as evident on national, state, regional and local maps as our highway or railway networks are today. We advocate this kind of bold thinking so that we can achieve the maximum future potential of greenways." Julius Gyula Fábos, "Introduction and overview: the greenway movement, uses and potentials of greenways" (1995, p.4) * Wei-Ning Xiang

When the process socio-ecological practice meets the virtue ecophronesis, the SEPR community receives benefits

“…Using it as an overarching theme and with competent examples from the past fifty years of his fruitful career, he illustrates how reflection on experience and improvisation —the two pillars in his conception of reflective socio-ecological practice—have not only benefitted his socio-ecological practice of land suitability assessment and plan-making but also nourished his continuous growth in creativity and wisdom as a socio-ecological scholar-practitioner (Steiner 2022 ). A socio-ecological scholar-practitioner is a scholar who is committed to the dual ambition of producing knowledge and advancing socio-ecological practice and dedicated to developing a scholarship that is useful to real-world practitioners and instructive to fellow scholars (Xiang 2022 , p.273). His essay as such affords what readers can also find in autobiographical essays by other venerable SEPR authors, readers, reviewers, and supporters (e.g., Callicott 2020 ; Douglas 2020a ; Forester 2017 ; Hoch 2017 ; Innes 2017 ): a delicate opportunity to learn about, in the words of the American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916–1962), “how carefully accomplished thinkers treat their own minds, how closely they observe their development and organize their experience … as a source of original intellectual work.” (Mills 1959 /2000, pp.…”

“…Since ecophronesis was first defined within the specific context of socio-ecological practice and promoted in 2016, its definition has been expanded to broader, more encompassing contexts of inter alia theology (Austin 2018 ) and philosophy (Lu and Wang 2022 ); there has also been a steady growth of an international literature on the topic, primarily in the English and Chinese languages. 6 In addition, since 2019, there has been a parallel development in ecopracticology—the study of socio-ecological practice and the ensuing body of knowledge (e.g., Cooke and Birnie-Gauvin 2022 ; Forester 2020 ; Steiner 2022 ; Xiang 2019a , 2022 , pp. 273–274).…”

“…As such, the irrigation system's longevity of conferring lasting benefits on generations of people at a minimal socio-ecological cost serves as a live testimony to the Daoist idea of "following nature's lead" (道法自然, dào fǎ zì rán) in pursuing human interests (Peng 2008, p. 538, p. 540, p. 546;Xiang 2014, p. 65) its definition has been expanded to broader, more encompassing contexts of inter alia theology (Austin 2018) and philosophy (Lu and Wang 2022); there has also been a steady growth of an international literature on the topic, primarily in the English and Chinese languages. 6 In addition, since 2019, there has been a parallel development in ecopracticology-the study of socio-ecological practice and the ensuing body of knowledge (e.g., Cooke and Birnie-Gauvin 2022;Forester 2020;Steiner 2022;Xiang 2019aXiang , 2022. To reflect these scholarly progressions, an updated version of the 2016 definition is in order and can be given as follows:…”