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Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations ISSN: 1841-2394, e-ISSN: 2471-0881 Vol 23 (1), 2024 pp. 3140–3158 3140 https://philolinginvestigations.com ECOSOCIALISM AND EMERGING ACCOUNTING THEORIES JORGE HUMBERTO RAMIREZ OSORIO Ph.D en Desarrollo Sostenible Universidad del Quindío 1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8411-9759 MONICA MARIA ARISTIZABAL H. Mg Administración Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios – UNIMINUTO” 2 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2770-3630 DIEGO FERNANDO SERNA OSORIO Mg en Economía y finanzas Institución Universitaria Visión de las Américas 3 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1479-4879 INTRODUCTION The modes of production that have been developed to meet human needs have impacted the planet and the ecosystems that form it in different ways. They are two modes of production that have opposite positions; the first is socialism which has permanently and rigorously criticized capitalism as the production model that contributes the most to the deterioration of the planet and human beings; which confers greater value on the monetary economy, develops to increase profits. The socialist position that is opposed to capitalist forms of production, in the relationship with natural resources, humanity and the planet, influences the emergence of other currents and ideologies that, despite having somewhat different visions, converge on the same thing, the conservation of ecosystems; doctrines, which aim to change the production model, to one that gives greater value to the moderate and responsible use of non-renewable resources, proposing strategies to meet the needs of society 1 Economista, Doctor en Desarrollo Sostenible. Profesor titular Universidad del Quindío. 2 Administradora Financiera, Magister en Administración. Profesora Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios – UNIMINUTO. 3 Administrador de Empresas. Magister en Administración Económica y Financiera, Profesor institución universitaria visión de las Americas 3141 https://philolinginvestigations.com that are sustainable and in balance with life on the planet. This article exposes in an abbreviated way positions of thought in relation to the subject, from Marx and Engels, to the most recent approach of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) and a document in which changes in strategies are proposed, which is summarized in "the green economy"; In addition, different positions and thoughts are shown on ways to impact the planet less despite the fact that productive activities continue to be carried out with which we want to solve the needs of a population that is growing at a dizzying rate. MATERIALS AND METHODS Methodology This article is a review of the primary literature where the subjective position is expressed in the form of an essay in relation to the ecology of socialism, supported by the bibliographic review of expert authors in production from a philosophical, economic and political perspective; as well as in official documents of organizations such as the UN and in research works developed, published and endorsed nationally and internationally, in which the most relevant and accessible contents of the subject were taken into account, in the face of the impact on a larger and smaller scale that productive activities have on the care and conservation of the planet from a socialist and capitalist way. The main elements of the emerging theories or approaches of accounting are presented as useful tools or instruments for the implementation of the principles of ecosocialism as only the existing references, only with the aim of highlighting the advances in terms of initiatives to stop the ecological and environmental disasters that have led to the planet and to improve many of the practices in terms of information generation accountant for the benefit of humanity and of the businessmen themselves. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS Evolution of the ecology of socialism To establish a sequence of the evolution of "the ecology of socialism", it is necessary to start with Engels, although it has not been established exactly that the tradition of the terms has its zero point there, the exact point in this regard is not known, but it is 3142 https://philolinginvestigations.com found in the text called: the role of work in the transformation of the ape into man (Engels; 1876) the following quote: ""We must not boast too much about our human victories over nature. For each of these victories, nature takes revenge on us. It is true that each victory given, we have in the first instance, the expected results, but in the second or third instance they are different, unexpected effects, which too often cancel out the first. The people in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor, and elsewhere who destroyed forests for arable land never imagined that while they cleared them, they would destroy the collection centers and moisture deposits, laying the foundation for the present desolate state of those countries. When the Italians of the Alps cut down the pine forests of the southern part, so dear to the northern part, they had not the slightest idea that while they were thus doing so they cut the roots of the dairy industry of their region; and even fewer foresaw that they were thus deprived of water sources for most of the year (...). The facts remind us at every step that we do not reign over nature as a conqueror reigns over a foreign people, as one who is outside of nature, but that we belong to her with our flesh, our blood, our brain, that we are in her bosom and that all our dominion over her lies in the advantage we have over the whole of other creatures is that of knowing her laws and her laws. to be able to use them judiciously." (Engels; 1981) It is important to clarify that the writings of Marx and Engels did not necessarily intend to deal directly with the ecological problem and the threats to the environment; but the logic of his naturalism allows us to understand that the relationship between men and nature is not unilateral. It has been considered, by different treatises and critics of the current state of ecology and the environment in the world, that Marx was indisputably the most sophisticated social analyst of the situation of the environment in the nineteenth century. According to Marx, what was needed was the rational regulation of the associated producers of the metabolic relationship between human beings and nature; in such a way as to promote the highest levels of individual and collective human fulfillment with the lowest cost in terms of energy expenditure. The author (Marx; 1986) in his book Capital, clearly hints at the power of destruction produced by the process of accumulation of capitalism, when mentioning the tendency of the industrialization of agriculture, in this regard he expresses in his writing that "each step taken in the intensification of soil fertility within a given period of time is at the same time a step taken in the depletion of the perennial sources that feed this fertility. This process of annihilation is all the more rapid the more a country relies, as is the case with the United States, on large-scale industry as 3143 https://philolinginvestigations.com the basis of its development. Capitalist production, therefore, only knows how to develop the technique and the combination of the social process of production while undermining the two original sources of all wealth." It is accepted that the first glimpses of ecology were found in the writings of the author Alexander Von Humboldt, of whom Charles Darwin said that, without him, the theory of evolution would not have been possible; who together with Bonpland, between 1799 and 1807, carried out an expedition through America, where they managed to obtain information through systematic observations on the relationships between climate, soil, animal and plant species, altitude and geographical determinations. He also pointed out the anthropic elements, that is, the effects of human activity that altered, modified or destroyed the balance of nature. For example, he perceived how deforestation or large-scale forest cutting down modified the rainfall regime and that, in turn, affected crops. In spite of the above, in historical documents, it is recognized that it was only until 1866, when the word ecology appeared in scientific literature, by the hand of the German biologist Ernst Haeckel. Ecology then emerged as a branch of the natural sciences, considering the relationships between living beings and their environment (or environment), and taking as an object of study the relationships between the elements, rather than the elements themselves. However, despite the fact that ecology was born in the nineteenth century, it only began to flourish until the twentieth century, when the first ecological societies and magazines appeared. Ernst Haeckel was a naturalist and philosopher who popularized the work of Charles Darwin in Germany, creating new terms such as "Phylum" and "ecology". The word ecology was proposed by Haeckel in 1869, and represents the interdependence and solidarity between living beings and the environment. Etymologically it means "study of the house", in clear reference to the Earth, although many other sciences had taken the planet as an object of study, for the first time, it was recognized as our home. It should be clear that, although the term Ecology was used for the first time by Haeckel, this science has its origins in other sciences such as biology, geology and evolution among others. Lamarck, with his first theory of evolution, proposed that the environment is in constant transformation, so organisms need to change and make an effort to achieve it, this being a mechanism of evolution and one of the main bases of ecology taking into account the relationships of organisms and their environment. (BANREP, 2010) 3144 https://philolinginvestigations.com On the other hand, the English geologist Charles Lyell (LYELL, 2010) found that the Earth's crust is the result of gradual changes throughout the planet's history and that not only organisms change and evolve, but also the Earth's crust. This resulted in the transformation of ecosystems and their functions. Modern ecology really got its beginnings with the development of Darwin's theory of evolution as evidenced in Figure 1. He observed that the environment is constantly changing, which causes the organisms with the best adaptations to be those that survive by the mechanism of natural selection. Highlighting the importance of the interaction of organisms with their environment. Illustration 1 Modern Ecology Source: own construction based on several authors. In original language: Spanish In relation to Haeckel's definition, it can be said that it has been the subject of somewhat different and perhaps more profound interpretations since 1900. For example, the English ecologist Charles Elton defined ecology as the "scientific natural history" that deals with the "sociology and economics of animals." An American specialist in plant ecology, Frederick Clements, considered ecology to be "a science of the community," and the contemporary American ecologist Eugene Odum has defined it, perhaps too broadly, as "the study of the structure and function of nature." By the third decade of the twentieth century, the first conceptions of "Synecology" also called Community Ecology began, where the concept of community as a higher hierarchical level of organization includes different populations interacting with 3145 https://philolinginvestigations.com their environment. However, this concept, attached to the biological origin of Ecology, was once again dissociated from the organisms that defined it; Later, as is still the case today, the "biotope" was distinguished as the place where the community lives, but by characteristics inherent to the physical environment, not by its relationship to organisms. Arriving in the first half of the twentieth century, in the 40s, Tansley proposed the concept of "ecosystem". This term was later developed by Lindeman (1941), who considered that the term should start from energy exchanges, attending to the need for concepts that link various organisms to their physical environments. In the ecology texts of the 50s and even later, an ecosystem is designated as the sum of the different communities (or biocenosis) and the biotope (inert environment) that they occupy. In this type of definition, it is remarkable how organisms or the community are formulated separately from the environment, since ecosystem is defined by the sum of terms. When talking about ecosystem, ecology becomes a science of synthesis and integration that begins to detach itself from biological fields to establish links with other natural sciences, in order to explain the relationships between organisms and their environment. After the second half of the twentieth century, with the triumph of capitalism over socialism, in the post-war period and the subsequent consolidation of the United States as a world power, but more than that as the promoter of modern capitalism, great concerns about the deterioration of the planet and its effects on the different elements or systems that compose it are accentuated. "Ecosocialism" emerges as a manifestation of this concern. Ecosocialism This term or movement has been around for approximately 25 years, it could be said that it has been a source of opinion and abundant literature; Try to take a tour of the evolution of the concept It can be said that important studies, books, articles, etc., have been published that try to show the close relationship between capitalism and the crisis of sustainability of the planet, or perhaps the existing ecological or environmental crisis 3146 https://philolinginvestigations.com Illustration 2 Ecosocialism Source: own construction based on several authors. In original language: Spanish The sociologist and philosopher Löwy and the writer and one of the founders of ecosocialism Joel Kövel (2000) define eco-socialism as the project or need to advance in the tasks of building a society where the major decisions about the priorities of production and consumption are not decided by a small group of exploiters or by market forces or, as has happened in real socialisms, by an oligarchy of bureaucrats and experts but by users and workers" Michäel Löwy (born 1938 in São Paulo, Brazil) is a French-Brazilian Marxist sociologist and philosopher. He is director of research emeritus at the National Center for Scientific Research in France and professor at the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences in Paris. In 1970 he published one of the most respected works on the thought of Che Guevara. In 2001 he was co-author of the International Ecosocialist Manifesto. In the magazine "Lucha de Clases", Claudio Chevarok wrote in 2006 an important article that he called "Capitalism and the Ecological Crisis". Approximations from Marxism. According to Claudio Crevarok: "Today the issue of the environment or also called the ecological crisis of the planet is gaining increasing significance in the eyes of public 3147 https://philolinginvestigations.com opinion and, fundamentally for the millions who suffer it most directly. Phenomena such as air and water pollution, soil degradation, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, global warming, destruction of the ozone layer, climate change, natural disasters (which are not always as "natural" as they seem), energy crisis, industrial waste, radioactive hazards, depletion of natural resources, chaos and urban decontrol, among others, appear daily in the news and newspapers and are topics of debate and meetings international where governments, NGOs, scientists, businessmen and various personalities are concerned about the fate of humanity that seems to be at risk of extinction. The appeals to universal consciousness (as if we were all responsible) multiply, but rarely, which is not at all causal, are the foundations of the crisis alluded to: the relationship between nature and society within the framework of a given mode of production. It is precisely production as a conscious transformation of matter that mediates between nature and society. Production implies relations of production; we are talking about a planet dominated by capitalism where the exploitation of workers, oppression and the deterioration of the living conditions of millions are linked to the destruction of the environment, as Marx and Engels had intuited very early on". It should be noted that the situation described by Claudio Crevarok is not something new and was predictable, because judging by Michael Löwy's phrase: "The ecological question, in my opinion, represents the great challenge for a renewal of Marxist thought at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It demands from Marxists a radical break with the ideology of linear progress and with the technological and economic paradigm of modern industrial civilization. It is true that it is not a question of calling into question the need for scientific and technical progress, and of raising the productivity of labor: it is a question of indispensable conditions for two indispensable objectives of socialism: the satisfaction of social needs and the reduction of the working day. The challenge is to reorient progress in a way that is compatible with preserving the ecological balance of the planet." (RIECHMANN. 2004) Veblen also made important contributions to what would later be called Ecosocialism, although he would not have done so with that intention, but before making his contribution with institutionalist theory he had already spoken, in a critique of classical and neoclassical economists, in this sense it is found that: "Veblen in his work TCO, seeks to study the emergence and subsequent social acceptance of the institution of a leisure class and private property. More precisely, "(...) to study 3148 https://philolinginvestigations.com the place and value of the leisure class as an economic factor in modern life (...)". In this sense, what Veblen called the institution of a leisure class, impacts as an economic factor, in the delineation of the characteristics of consumption patterns and habits, not only of a class, but of an entire society. Thus, Veblen ends up developing a theory of consumption based on the "destructive" instinct of emulation or value distinction and the "constructive" instinct of efficient work or time, but on those who only do things aimed at marking their status in society, without this representing any contribution to the creation of useful goods" useful industriousness that contrasts with the automaton vision of the consumer that prevails in orthodox economics, under the assumption of utility-optimising behaviour under conditions of perfect forecasting. To this end, Veblen studies how throughout human history various elements of class value distinction have emerged along with the value distinction between tasks (industrial and non-industrial, such as war or government). It is thus through a recurrent intertemporal dialogue that Veblen manages to make the present interact with the past, reviving not only the origins of the leisure class, but also the evolution and dynamics of its habits and behaviors. In this process of analysing the present with an eye permanently situated in the past, Veblen gives a glimpse of a series of historical stages. These stages reflect the different cultural and spiritual stages through which Western society has gone until it reached its incipient industrial expression at the end of the nineteenth century. It is precisely these differences between the psychological profiles of individuals at different moments in time, and not mechanical or material differences, that allow us to identify and characterize each of the stages of humanity. Thus we find a primeval stage, original to the human race, corresponding to the lowest stage of cultural development of communities. This state of "primitive savagery" is characterized by the absence of economic hierarchies, where property is not the dominant feature of the human spirit. This phase is the one with the longest relative duration and that is why it has forged many habits that are still rooted, according to Veblen, in the behaviors of men today. The later stage corresponds to the period of barbarian life or culture. In this stage, humanity goes through two consecutive phases: a first, which corresponds to the predatory stage, where a usually bellicose state of mind dominates and where selfishness becomes the dominant note; and subsequently, an advanced phase of barbarian culture: the quasi-peaceful stage, whose characteristic feature is the formal observance of peace and order and an excessive coercion and class antagonism that is already characterized by modern industrial methods." (FIGUERAS AND MORENO, 2016). 3155 https://philolinginvestigations.com important if, according to them, over time more companies are using carbon accounting allowing them to identify areas for improvement in their processes. Increased efforts towards regulatory compliance, compliance with standards is an important trend of organizations today in the field of sustainable accounting, in this way companies seek to comply with the relevant legal and ethical standards. This fact brings profits for companies by deriving advantages that the market gives them, as a result of regulatory compliance, also reducing financial risks. Adoption of sustainable reporting standards, the authors point out that this trend has to do with "using sustainability indicators to report on the environmental, social and economic performance of organizations" In the specific case of Colombia, the progress in the presentation of sustainability reports by large companies reflects their interest in being accountable to society in a clear way. but it also leads them to be able to value what they can do for that society. The growing importance of impact investing is understood as a way to channel resources towards organizations and initiatives that promote social, environmental and economic progress and this trend is important because, as mentioned before, such an initiative contributes to the company increasing its profits and improving the sustainability profile. Use of Technology for Sustainability, is the adoption of technologies that allow organizations to measure their contribution to sustainability, it is the case of the use of data analysis technologies with which to analyze their performance in this sense and make more informed decisions in the process of reducing their impact. Growing awareness of sustainability issues, this trend is useful, in the opinion of the authors because "Consumers are also increasingly aware of the need to support sustainable businesses and to make informed purchasing decisions. This increased awareness of sustainability issues has had a beneficial impact on businesses and society." The same article on this trend refers to the fact that "Increased awareness of sustainability issues has also had a positive impact on society by encouraging people to be more aware of their consumption habits" (CASTRO Y et al, 2023). On the other hand, and in the set of alternatives from the accounting discipline for the development of "ecosocialism", we must talk about Bioaccounting which can be 3156 https://philolinginvestigations.com conceived as a discipline that the ways in which organizations can manage the environment and natural wealth, is useful because it helps to measure the environmental deterioration that companies may cause in the fulfillment of their corporate purpose. Of course, bioaccounting does not conflict with sustainable accounting insofar as it also contributes to sustainability and allows companies to innovate with an ecological approach. Bioaccounting can be said to be based on environmental accounting, which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, when concern about the environmental impact of companies began to grow. As global ecological awareness increased, tools began to be developed to account for ecological costs. The emergence of bioaccounting is directly associated with the use of the term sustainable development contained in the Bruntland report of the 1980s, of the twentieth century. It is not wrong to say that bioaccounting is an evolution of traditional accounting. Methodologies such as carbon footprint, natural capital accounting and life cycle analysis are typical of bi-accounting; tools with which it was possible to quantify more accurately the environmental impact of the production processes. The most important thing about bioaccounting is that, as a discipline, it has the support of international organizations such as the United Nations System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) and the Natural Capital Protocol. In addition to the above, we can also talk about the three-dimensional theory of accounting according to which "Accounting should not be limited only to recording economic facts (such as income and expenses), but should also consider the financial and social impact of an entity's operations". This approach to accounting proposes three dimensions from which accounting should be exercised: the economic dimension, the environmental dimension and the social dimension. The three-dimensional theory of accounting broadens the field of action of accounting, making it more complete, connects accounting with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and promotes a more critical, ethical and human vision of organizational management. CONCLUSION 3157 https://philolinginvestigations.com Without departing from the broad debate on the clash posed by "ecosocialism" against capitalism, which is only recognized as the cause of the greatest disasters that the planet suffers today due to its willingness to accumulate and generate profits, in particular the content of this article, It can be said that there is a clear and extensive literature on the evolution of "ecosocialism" whose bases do not depart from what today constitutes the concern to conserve and regenerate the environment, natural resources and human life. It cannot be thought that initiatives for the care of the environment, natural resources and the life of the planet are a patrimony of ecosocialism, it is in general an interest of all the inhabitants of this planet, led by those who are called to lead, that is, by governments and by businessmen. It is also gratifying to recognize that in the application of so many initiatives that have existed and that exist, important actions have already been carried out in favor of the care of the environment, natural resources and human resources, which is why they have wanted to enunciate, and will remain for later developments, different approaches and dimensions of accounting that have been accepted in good time so that the generation of accounting information is increasingly It is increasingly more truthful, more efficient and reflects the impact of productive activity on society, on the planet, on natural resources, but perhaps most importantly, that the application of these tools is not a burden for entrepreneurs but, on the contrary, that it contributes to their increasingly better businesses in terms of returns. BIBLIOGRAPHY CAISSO LUCIA. Article: Ecosocialism in the Marxist perspective and the need for its construction. Publication Ecological Marxism. 2009. 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