Human Ecology

We face an environmental catastrophe of global proportions. The ecological rationality of modern society, and of science in particular, is in question. Science still responds to crises at the level of technocratic expertise, and still treats society as an adaptive system. By bringing together a number of integrative approaches to the human-environment problem, Human Ecology shapes a more radical, fundamental agenda for change. The book creates a framework for a cohesive discourse, for a "new human ecology". From the notion that the individual person is an agent mediating between society and environment, the individual contributors recognize that the environmental crisis is really a crisis of society - manifesting itself in an increasing fragmentation of lives in general and knowledge in particular. Arguing for environmentally sustainable lifestyles, the book envisages a new kind of consciousness and a new environment.

1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION, 2 INTRODUCTION TO PART I, 3 HUMAN ECOLOGY AND BIOHISTORY: CONCEPTUAL APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING HUMAN SITUATIONS IN THE BIOSPHERE, 4 HUMAN ECOLOGY AS TRANSDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE, AND SCIENCE AS PART OF HUMAN ECOLOGY 5 HOW DOES THE PERSON FIT INTO THE HUMAN ECOLOGICAL TRIANGLE? FROM DUALISM TO DUALITY: THE RANSACTIONAL WORLDVIEW, 6 PHILOSOPHICAL REMARKS ON THE PROJECT OF HUMAN ECOLOGY

Dieter Steiner is Professor of Quantitative Geography and Human Ecology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich. Markus Nauser is a Scientific Collaborator with Ecosens Ltd, an environmental management consultancy near Zürich