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The Environmental Crisis In Human Dignity
Author(s) -
Proshansky Harold M.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1973.tb00100.x
Subject(s) - dignity , novelty , unintended consequences , value (mathematics) , environmental ethics , fundamental human needs , technological change , law and economics , social psychology , sociology , psychology , public relations , political science , law , computer science , philosophy , machine learning , artificial intelligence
The environmental crisis in human dignity lies not just in the overuse, the misuse, and the decay of physical settings, but far more significantly in how we conceive of the individual in relation to any such setting. In the design and organization of physical settings, the human properties of the individual are ignored, oversimplified, or implicitly assumed, because of the influence of such socioenvironmental values as scientific‐technological progress, urbanism, pseudoprogress (novelty and change), and the value placed on an ever increasing acceleration of technological change. Spaces and places are improperly designed not only in physical terms; designs overlook human needs for privacy, territoriality, freedom of choice, etc., and the conceiving of the individual as a simple “machine man.” Unintended consequences are often ignored and no attempt is made to evaluate just how well the setting actually works. The danger is that the person will adjust and at the price of a continuing erosion of the properties that make him distinctively human. It is imperative that as behavioral scientists turn to the systematic study of man/environment problems they recognize the need to maintain the contextual reality and integrity of any such problem as it evolves, develops, and becomes modified in the time framework of a complex society.