Modernity, postmodernity, and ecological wisdom: Toward a new framework for landscape and urban planning

I explore ecological wisdom's (EW) potential to become an influential framework for sustainable landscape and urban planning. To do this I position EW in relation to modernity, postmodernity, and reflexive modernity's critiques of history and knowledge. I note EW's contemporary emergence in China and its connection to Eastern philosophies as well as its resonance with some Western thinkers and schools of thought. I then note its capacity to bridge divides such as those separating past from present, local from universal, and nature from society. I propose EW provides opportunities for syntheses of these divisions. By doing so EW provides an opportunity to assess the wisdom of planning interventions based upon the symmetry of their impact on the coevolution of social and ecological systems. Through these assessments EW can be used as a guidepost to human and ecological efforts that can contribute to the development of regenerative cities and landscapes.