Human ecology 155899 220956750 2008-06-22T11:36:43Z Ferengi 3383909 '''Human ecology''' is an [[List of academic disciplines|academic discipline]] that deals with the relationship between [[human]]s and their natural, social and created environments. Human ecology investigates how humans and human [[society|societies]] interact with [[nature]] and with their [[social environment|environment]]. ==Establishing the field of human ecology== In the [[United States|USA]], human ecology was established as a sociological field in the 1920's, although [[Geography|geographers]] were using the term much earlier. [[Amos H. Hawley]] published ''Human Ecology -- A Theory of Community Structure'' in 1950. He dedicated the book to one of the pioneers in the field who had begun writing the work with Hawley, R.D. McKenzie. Hawley contributed other works to the development of the field. In 1961, an important reader, ''Studies in Human Ecology'', was published (edited by [[George A. Theodorson]]). In the 1970's [[William R. Catton]] and [[Riley E. Dunlap]] built on earlier works by [[Chicago School (sociology)|Chicago School]]'s [[Robert E. Park]] and Hawley. One main idea of Catton and Dunlap was to go away from the [[Émile Durkheim|Durkheimian]] [[paradigm]] of explaining social facts only with social facts. Instead, they included physical and biological facts as independent variables influencing [[social structure]] and other social phenomena. This change of paradigm can be described as a change from a classical sociological view of ''human exemptionalism'' to a new view (named ''new ecological paradigm'' by Catton and Dunlap). Humans are no longer seen as an exceptional species that uses [[culture]] to adapt to new environments and environmental change, influenced more by social than by biological variables, but rather as one species out of many that interacts with a bounded natural environment. In contrast to the Chicago School of Human Ecology developed by Park, Burgess, and Mckenzie during the 1920s, contemporary research in the School of Social Ecology at the [[University of California, Irvine]] goes beyond the biological and economic foundations of human ecology to provide a broader, cross-disciplinary perspective on the ways in which human-environment relations are jointly influenced by physical environmental, political, legal, psychological, cultural, and societal forces. A line of conflict between this new paradigm and the classical sociological approach is the de-valuating of society and culture. Human ecology views human [[community|communities]] and human [[population]]s as part of the ecosystem of earth. In this view, [[sociology]] would be only a sub-discipline of [[ecology]] -- the special ecology of the species ''[[Homo sapiens sapiens]]''. Of course, this is seen as an affront by most sociologists. Human ecology is variously a sub-discipline of anthropology, psychology, sociology, or ecology. The inclusion or exclusion of human ecology in sociology proper varies between countries and schools of sociological thinking. Environmental sociology is a field of sociology which encompasses the interactions between humans and nature/natural environment, but is rooted in the methodological and theoretical canon of sociology. Sometimes human ecology is seen as part of environmental sociology, sometimes it is seen as something completely separate. Influences can also be seen between human ecology and the field of [[political ecology]]. Historically, University departments of Human Ecology have drawn, to some degree, on faculty from Women's and Gender Studies and other faculty specializing in child development and other studies of the family. ==Quotes on human ecology== {{quotation|Human Ecology is an [[interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinary]] applied field that uses a [[holism|holistic approach]] to help people solve problems and enhance human potential within their near environments - their clothing, family, home, and community. Human Ecologists promote the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through education, prevention, and empowerment.|[http://www.hecol.ualberta.ca/]}} {{quotation|Human ecology explores not only the influence of humans on their environment but also the influence of the environment on human behaviour, and their adaptive strategies as they come to understand those influences better. [...] For us, human ecology is a methodology as much as an area of research. It is a way of thinking about the world, and a context in which we define our questions and ways to answer those questions [...]|[http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/humaneco/he_whatishe.html]}} == See also == {{multicol}} *[[Environmental communication]] *[[Ecology]], espc. [[Ecology#Human ecology]] *[[Environmental Psychology]] *[[Ecological Systems Theory]] *[[Human behavioral ecology]] *[[Sociobiology]] *[[Rural sociology]] *[[Environmental sociology]] *[[List of publications in sociology#Human ecology|Important publications in human ecology ]] {{multicol-break}} *[[Robert E. Park]] *[[Ernest Burgess]] *[[John Paul Goode]] *[[Garrett Hardin]] *[[Daniel Stokols]] *[[Louis Wirth]] {{multicol-end}} == External links == === Human Ecology Publications === * [http://www.humanecologyreview.org/ Human Ecology Review, the journal of SHE] * [http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/anthro/ecology.html Human Ecology : An Interdisciplinary Journal] * [http://www.humanecologyreview.org/ Human Ecology Review] ISSN 1074-4827 === Colleges and Academic Departments of Human Ecology === * [http://info.anu.edu.au/StudyAt/010PP_Undergraduate/_AOI_Human_Ecology.asp Australian National University : Human Ecology Studies] * [http://www.humanecology.com.au/ Australasian School of Human Ecology] * [http://bchhs.ysu.edu/dhe/index.shtml Bitonte College : Health & Human Ecology] * [http://www.brescia.uwo.ca/ Brescia U. : Human Ecology, Food and Nutrition] * [http://www.cameron.edu/psych_human_ecology/ Cameron U. : Psych. & Human Ecology] * [http://www.mda.cinvestav.mx/p02b.htm Cinvestav : Maestría en Ecología Humana] * [http://www.humec.ksu.edu/ College of Human Ecology at Kansas State University] * [http://www.coa.edu College of the Atlantic], College of the Atlantic * [http://www.human.cornell.edu/ College of Human Ecology at Cornell University] * [http://www.humeco.rutgers.edu/ Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers University, New Jersey, U.S.] * [http://www.uplb.edu.ph/che College of Human Ecology at [[University of the Philippines, Los Baños]]] * http://www.hecol.ualberta.ca/ Degree Programs in Human Ecology, Alberta, Canada. * [http://gs.strath.ac.uk/content/view/78/103/ Masters in Human Ecology], University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland * [http://hec.osu.edu/ College of Human Ecology at Ohio State University] * [http://www.utexas.edu/depts/he/ Department of Human Ecology at U. Texas/Austin] * [http://www.ecu.edu/che/ East Carolina U. : College of Human Ecology] * [http://www.he.gu.se/english/default.html Göteborg U. : Human Ecology Studies] * [http://www.kyunghee.edu/acadaemy/under_s7_01_02.php Kyung Hee U. : School of Human Ecology] * [http://www.huec.lsu.edu/ Louisiana State : School of Human Ecology] * [http://www.latech.edu/ans/human-ecology/index.shtml Louisiana Tech Human Ecology] * [http://www.morgan.edu/academics/seus/humaneco/humaneco.asp Morgan U. : Dept. of Human Ecology] * [http://www.hec.ohio-state.edu/ Ohio State : College of Human Ecology] * [http://www.humanecology.rutgers.edu/ Rutgers Dept. of Human Ecology] * [http://www.seweb.uci.edu/index.uci School of Social Ecology at University of California, Irvine] * [http://che.snu.ac.kr/eng/ Seoul National University : College of Human Ecology] * [http://www.tntech.edu/hec/ Tennessee Tech : School of Human Ecology] * [http://www.pvamu.edu/pages/303.asp Texas A&M : Agriculture, Nutrition and Human Ecology] * [http://www.hecol.ualberta.ca/ University of Alberta, Human Ecology Degree programs] * [http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/human_ecology/ U. of Manitoba : Faculty of Human Ecology] * [http://www.umes.edu/Academic/SANS/HE/ U. of Maryland : Dept. of Human Ecology] * [http://oneweb.utc.edu/~hecodept/ U. of Tennessee : Dept. of Human Ecology] * [http://www.he.utexas.edu/ U. of Texas : Dept. of Human Ecology] * [http://www.sohe.wisc.edu/ U. of Wisconsin : School of Human Ecology] * [http://www.iff.ac.at/socec/index_en.php Universität Klagenfurt : Institute of Social Ecology] * [http://www.vsu.edu/pages/404.asp Virginia State : Dept. of Human Ecology] * [http://www.vub.ac.be/english/ Vrije Universiteit Brussels] * [http://www.humanoekologi.aau.dk/ Aalborg Universitet, Denmark: Diploma education in Human Ecology] === Human Ecology Research and Applications Centers === * [http://www.che.ac.uk Centre for Human Ecology], Scotland * [http://www.humanecologyforum.org HumanEcologyForum.org], Human Ecology Global Collaboration and Communication Network * [http://www.ihe.org/ Institute of Human Ecology, China] * [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/herg/ U. College London : Human Ecology Research Group] === Human Ecology Societies and Associations === * [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fohe Friends of Human Ecology On-Line Discussion List] * [http://www.societyforhumanecology.org/ Society for Human Ecology (SHE)] === Human Ecology Resources === * [http://www.societyforhumanecology.org/links.html Long link list at SHE] * [http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/research/humaneco/whatishe.php "What is Human Ecology?" at University of Oxford] == References == *Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). ''The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (ISBN 0-674-22457-4) *Buttel, Frederick H. (1986): Sociology and the Environment: The Winding Road toward Human Ecology, ''International Social Science Journal'' 38: 337-356. *Ehrlich, Paul R; Ehrlich, Anne H.; Holdren, John P. (1973): ''Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions''. San Francisco: Freeman. *Glaeser, Bernhard. (1996): Humanökologie: Der sozialwissenschaftliche Ansatz, in ''Naturwissenschaften'', 83: 145-152. *Arler, Finn (ed.) (2002): Humanøkologi. Miljø, teknologi og samfund, Aalborg University Press *Gross, Matthias. (2004): Human Geography and Ecological Sociology: The Unfolding of a Human Ecology, 1890 to 1930 – and Beyond. ''Social Science History'' 28 (4): 575-605. *Last, John. M. (1998). ''Human Ecology and Public Health'', McGraw & Hill. <!-- {{Human ecology-footer}} --> {{-}} {{Ethnobiology}} [[Category:Ecology by taxon]] [[Category:Social psychology]] [[Category:Environment]] [[Category:Branches of sociology (interdisciplinary)]] [[Category:Geography]] [[Category:Human geography]] [[da:Humanøkologi]] [[de:Humanökologie]] [[el:Ανθρωποοικολογία]] [[es:Ecología humana]] [[fr:Écologie humaine]] [[pt:Ecologia humana]] [[ru:Экология человека]] [[sk:Ekológia človeka]] [[sv:Humanekologi]] [[zh:人类生态学]]