Human Ecology: Following Nature's Lead

by Frederick R. Steiner, Richard T.T. Forman (Foreword)

Human ecology is an emerging discipline that studies the interrelationships between humans and their environment, drawing on insights from biology, sociology, anthropology, geography, engineering, architecture, landscape architecture, planning, and conservation. A vast, multidisciplinary literature underscores this approach, and in Human Ecology, noted landscape planner Frederick Steiner synthesizes the work of diverse, sometimes divergent, scholars to illustrate how human interactions can be understood as ecological relationships, using hierarchy as an organizing device.

Steiner builds on the work of leading thinkers including Christopher Alexander, William Cronon, Clifford Geertz, James Lovelock, Eugene Odum, Paul Shepard, Anne Whiston Spirn, E. O. Wilson, Gerald Young, and many others to present a historical and analytical examination of how humans interact with each other as well as with other organisms and their surroundings.

The first two chapters summarize the development of this "new ecology" and the theory of human ecology. The remainder of the book provides an accessible introduction to the major elements of human ecological theory including language, culture, and technology; structure, function, and change; edges and boundaries; interaction, integration, and institution; diversity; and adaptation. The chapters are organized hierarchically from the smallest scale to the largest with each chapter addressing a specific level as an ecosystem. The final chapter probes some of the ethical implications of this new field.

Human Ecology brings together for the first time scholarship from the social and natural sciences as well as the environmental design arts to offer an overview of the field of human ecology and to show how the field may help us to envision our futures. While the approach is largely theoretical, it has broad policy and practical implications, and represents an important new work for anyone concerned with interactions between humans and the environment.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a very bad book. Every once in a while the author drops a little insight, but for the most part it's just a stream-of-conscious rambling through a loose assemblage of unrelated ideas. Much of what the author writes is so obvious as to be painful, or at other times simply ignorant. "Immigration matters are governed by the state. Nations may organize themselves into various state structures. A state is a political community under one government. Government structures vary as a result of legal traditions and politics. The nineteenth-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt observed that the state may be viewed as a work of art....The 'qualifications for being a civilized state amount to,' according to John Le Carre, electoral suffrage; protection of life and property; justice, health, and education for all; the maintenance of sound administration infrastructure; roads, transport, and drainage; and the equitable collection of taxes." That paragraph ends with "Can we construct drainage systems that restore the health of watersheds?" The answer to that question, like so many others in this book, must remain a mystery for Professor Steiner and for us.

[Bradley Jarvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is advertised as an overview of the field of human ecology, which I bought it to help me decide on a new career path. It a very informal, conversational introduction to the approach of using ecology to understand the totality of relationships between people, each other, what we build, and the rest of Nature.

Loosely organized around a few basic principles, the author proceeded in what often felt like a stream-of-consciousness brain-dump of impressions, experiences, facts, and concepts, all crammed into a book that probably should have been triple the size to do justice to any of the points the author wanted to make. I had the impression when I was done of having watched a jigsaw puzzle assembled with a lot of the pieces missing, but just enough to discern a few basic features of the picture. Maybe that was intentional, like a movie preview.

That said, I would love to be able to understand and experience the world the way the author does. The jury's still out on whether I might go further in that direction as a career, but I'll definitely seek out more about the subject no matter what I decide.