Rather than analysing the book in question, this essay endeavours to place it within the framework of the development of the social and natural sciences. In this context, special attention should be devoted to the "ecological" approach which does not consider its subject of analysis in isolation but rather looks at it through the lens of its interaction with the environment. Within the social sciences, this approach was employed by Adam Smith and classical political economy in general, which is also the source of Marx's notions of the humanisation of nature and the naturalisation of man. Similar approaches were subsequently taken within historiography (Jared Diamond), psychology (Kurt Lewin, Anton Trstenjak) and ethics (Hans Jonas), as well as the natural sciences, notably within physics, for example by Einstein who considered matter and energy in close connection with space and time; within biology, in Darwin's and Haeckel's idea of ecology, or Lovelock's concept of Gaia according to which the entire Earth is a single ecological system that is essentially dependent on man's actions. Mlinar's book also belongs in this framework. What makes it especially valuable is the topicality of the subjects it explores (globalisation, informatisation), how it relates global issues to the local ones relevant to the town of Koper, and the richness of content that is also evident in its scope and the wealth of the referenced literature. Above all, this is not science for the sake of science since the author also presents practical consequences, including in terms of a revolutionary social change.
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