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Socio-cultural spheres of global society


Future Global Exodus to the Metasphere (Part #3)

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Academic spheres: There is clearly a tendency to associate "sphere" -- if only informally -- with many of the topics which are the focus of the many disciplines (Intellectual Disciplines and Sciences: cross-referenced to world problems, 1976).

Sectoral spheres: This tendency is also evident in references to sectors and domains of activity more generally, most notably in the identification of 12 Spheres of Life in the Humanity's Team initiative:

Spheres of influence: In addition to the reservation above with regard to the identification of "spheres" in relation to domains of preoccupation, the term is commonly used more loosely to define a sphere of interest or a sphere of influence. Examples of the latter, as noted by Wikipedia, include: Anglosphere, East Asian cultural sphere (aka Sinosphere), Eurosphere, Francosphere, Germanosphere, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (imperial influence of the Japanese Empire), Indosphere (Greater India), Persophere, Islamosphere, Slavisphere, Soviet sphere of influence, Yugosphere. Exceptional extensions of this pattern include Fatosphere, Jihadisphere, and consideration of gender-based spheres (Jone Johnson Lewis, Separate Spheres Ideology: women and men in their own places, ThoughtCo, 11 September 2019).

Missing from such an articulation based on a suffix, and an indication of a limitation of that framing, is the significance attributed to the American sphere of influence ( The US Has Its Own "Sphere of Influence" and It's Huge, The Liberty Beacon, 8 March 2022; Graham Allison, The New Spheres of Influence: sharing the globe with other Great Powers, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2020).

Identifying additional spheres: Most of the spheres noted above are usefully noted in the Wiktionary page on Category:English words suffixed with -sphere. In endeavouring to identify those of cognitive relevance, the following can be excluded of secondary relevance to a cognitive focus, except to the extent that they may offer useful metaphors.

Culturally conditioned spheres: As noted above, recognition is accorded to "culturally conditioned earth spheres" which only exist because of human activity. As argued by Dieter Gerten, et al:

We consider the cultural component of the Earth system as important as biogeophysical, economic and technological components. Generally speaking, there is a need to account for the unique capability of humans... to act as a self-conscious force with foresight skills. Schellnhuber (1999) calls this collective cognitive capacity of humanity an immaterial, metaphysical "global subject" , which on the one hand happened to   have "conquered our planet"..., but on the other hand is now also on a quest for a more sustainable future as expressed in international agreements.... Thus, we like to emphasise... that the “global subject” is a manifold cultural phenomenon with distributed regional patterns as well as different aesthetical, cosmological and symbolic dimensions that coexist, evolve over time, and are driven rather by personal purposes or intentions than by functional or political purposes... (On deeper human dimensions in Earth system analysis and modelling  Earth System Dynamics, 2018)

These spheres are variously distinguished by different authors -- and possibly conflated -- with some considered (if at all) as subspheres of the anthroposphere. The manner in which the socio-cultural and psycho-cultural spheres are distinguished tends to be a reflection of the biases of the disciplines with regard to the natural sciences and the behavioural sciences, to the exclusion of those with a cognitive or spiritual emphasis.

Spheres of potential psych-social significance: The spheres noted above are variously supplemented by the following (notably as identified from the Wiktionary page):

  • anthroposphere: The anthroposphere may be defined as the part of the environment that is made or modified by humans. Put differently, the anthroposphere is the sphere of the earth system or its subsystems where human activities constitute a significant source of change through the use and subsequent transformation of natural resources, as well as through the deposition of waste and emissions. (A. Kuhn and T. Heckelei, Anthroposphere, Impacts of Global Change on the Hydrological Cycle in West and Northwest Africa, 2010) humanosphere

  • sociosphere: All human beings on the planet and all their interrelationships. A well functioning sociosphere enables people to lead good lives within a sustainable environment and economic system. This can be held to include an adminisphere.

  • technosphere: This is readily assumed to be an alternative term for anthroposphere. It can be understood to include everything man-made on the planet -- including all discarded trash (What Is the Technosphere? EcoIdeaMan, 9 February  2017). It can also be be described as "a system, with its own dynamics and energy flows" -- the global emergent system that includes humans, technological artefacts, and associated social and technological networks (Mark Williams and Jan Zalasiewicz, The Anthropocene Biosphere, Anthropocene Review, 18 June 2015)
  • cybersphere: The realm of information technology and electronic communication; the totality of information and contacts available over the Internet. ,
  • mediasphere: This is the collective ecology of the world's media, including newspapers, journals, television, radio, books, novels, advertising, press releases, publicity and the blogosphere; any and all media both broadcast and published.

  • noosphere: articulated by Vladimir Vernadsky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin as two related but starkly different philosophical concepts, the former being grounded in the geological sciences, and the latter in theology. Both conceptions of the noosphere share the common thesis that together human reason and the scientific thought has created, and will continue to create, the next evolutionary geological layer. Vernadsky defined the noosphere as the new state of the biosphere  and described as the planetary "sphere of reason". The noosphere represents the highest stage of biospheric development, its defining factor being the development of humankind's rational activities.  For Teilhard, the noosphere is the sphere of thought encircling the earth that has emerged through evolution as a consequence of the growth in complexity/consciousness
    • ethnosphere: Defined from an anthropological perspective by Wade Davis as the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness. The ethnosphere is humanity's great legacy. It's a symbol of all that we are, and all that we can be as an astonishingly inquisitive species. And just as the biosphere is being severely eroded, so too is the ethnosphere, and if anything, at a far greater rate.

    • ideosphere: The ideosphere -- like the noosphere (i.e., the realm of reason) -- is the metaphysical 'place' where thoughts, theories, ideas, and ideation are regarded to be created, evaluated, and evolved.

    • infosphere / information sphere: a term used to speculate about the common evolution of the Internet, society and culture; a metaphysical realm of information, data, knowledge, and communication, populated by informational entities termed inforgs (or, informational organisms). Though one example is cyberspace, infospheres are not limited to purely online environments; they can include both offline and analogue information

    • logosphere: An adaptation of the concepts biosphere and noosphere, derived from the interpretation of the meaning of words, conceptualized through an abstract sphere

    • psychosphere: The sphere or realm of human consciousness, seemingly rarely used. For K .Z. Freeman:
      • Simply put, it is the sphere of human thought. But since for most thought implies conscious thinking only, it would be better to say that the Psychosphere is a sphere of human consciousness. Imagine a biosphere, only instead of it being the global sum of ecosystems, the psychosphere is the sum of subtle fields of thought. And unlike the noosphere, which is the sphere of direct human thought, the psychosphere could more easily be imagined as a sphere of human emotion - or general consciousness - instead of specific thoughts. (Psychosphere, 7 May 2015)

    • religiosphere / religio-sphere: Ebenezer Obadare (The Emergent Religionsphere: organisation and practices,  2007):
      • Sphere of Ministry / Commissionsphere
      • Ecclesiosphere; Recognized by Emile Poulat as a sphere of influence of the Roman Catholic Church that forces the other spheres but also other countries to come to terms with it.
      • Martyrosphere

    • semiosphere: The sphere of signs and symbols. It falls under biosemiotics and is an abstract, epiphenomenal, dialogic membrane of semiosis, in which sign processes operate under the set of all interconnected Umwelt. (Yuri Lotman, Universe of the Mind: a semiotic theory of culture, 1990).

Remedial capacity boundaries? Rather than the crisis of planetary boundaries noted above, any "spherological crisis" also calls for recognition of global civilization's "remedial capacity"in psycho-social terms, as presented below left from a separate discussion (Recognizing the Psychosocial Boundaries of Remedial Action: constraints on ensuring a safe operating space for humanity, 2009). The notion of a safe operating space for humanity framed by the planetary boundaries is central to the Oxfam Doughnut model, reproduced below left (Kate Raworth, A Safe and Just Space for Humanity: can we live within the doughnut?, 2012) and discussed separately (Exploring the Hidden Mysteries of Oxfam's Doughnut: recognizing the systemic negligence of an Earth Summit, 2012).

 
Nine Remedial Capacity Boundaries
(using the representational pattern of the Planetary Boundaries)		 Oxfam Doughnut
Nine Remedial Capacity Boundaries Oxfam Doughnut

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