Human Ecology

Human ecology is the study of the mutual interconnections between people and their environments at multiple scales and multiple time frames. The subject is informed by ecological and evolutionary theory in biology and by the concepts of landscape and spatial relationships in geography; but recognizes that humans have gradually achieved partial ecological and geographical dominance through their culturally given but continually changing technology and social, economic, and political arrangements. Human ecology subsumes such specialized approaches to these relationships as cultural ecology, political ecology, geography, ecological anthropology, environmental sociology, environmental economics, environmental psychology, and environmental history.