ecological theory

Human ecology is the study of how humans interact with their environment. It views biological, environmental, demographic, and technical factors as interconnected influences on human cultures and social systems. Sociologists adopted this approach, influenced by biologists studying organism interactions, to examine how social structures adapt to natural resources and other human groups.1

While early sociological thought explored deterministic theories like social Darwinism, human ecology emerged as a way to understand social change by linking environmental conditions with demographic, organizational, and technological factors. This approach, particularly prominent in the Chicago School's urban research, involved mapping distributions and identifying patterns in urban life, contributing to the development of sociological methodology. Human ecology remains a small but significant part of sociology today.23