Precursors to a Family Ecology: Interrelated Threads of Ecological Thought

Abstract

In this article we attempt an histoical overview of the relevant developments and streams of tlrcught in ecologt and lwman ecologt in order to establish a framework for tlrc study of family life from an ecological perspective. In part two of tltis paper (to be publislted in the next issue o/ Family Science Review), we will identify and discuss in more detail the important cortsiderations and constntcts of ecologt we believe are applicable to the study of family ltft.With the growing interest in using an ecological perspective in home economics, family studies, family therapy, and human development, we believe it is both a timely and necessary endeavor to carefully explore the potential for connecting the principles of ecology to the study of family life. It is our intent to demonstrate that ecology is-not simply a tempting Tnitgeist, but is a conceptual force to be carefully and fruitfully utilized for decades to come in the study of family life. We begin with a brief history oi ecology in the biological sciences and the emergence of human ecology in sociology. THE BACKGROUND OF ECOLOGY IN BIOLOGY AND THE EMERGENCE OF HUMAN ECOLOGYThe word "ecology" communicates many things to people. There is agreement that the denotation of ecology comes from the Greek word "oikos," meaning house (which has come to mean an organism's most immediate or natural environment, inciuding b-Lotr-.1".d. abiotic components), combined with "logos," 6sanilg knowledge. virtually all definitions of ecology include a focus on organisms, their environment, and the interrelation.ships between them. Pinning dov*n the connotation of ecology, however, is not at all clear or unified. Much of this difficulty can be attributed to ecology's polymorphic nature and the diversity of its origins and applications. Mclntosh (1985) cautions against trying to identify direct historical connections in ecology because ecology "is more a bush with multiple stems and a diffuse rootstock than a.tree with a single,well-defined trunk and roots" (p.7). Given the general consensus about what ecology basically denotes, this metaphor can help us understand why there i Donald A. Herrin is an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, tIT 8410. Scott D. Wright is in assistant professor in the same department.

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“…Instead, their goal was to understand the family as an ecosystem to help “students understand the interdependencies of man with man and with his environment” (Hook & Paolucci, 1970, p. 318), using the already established POET (population, organization, environment, and technology) model (Duncan & Schnore, 1959). Bronfenbrenner likely pulled from similar ideas of the time to create the Ecological Systems Theory, a prominent theory in HDFS, especially considering that many fields in the 1970s were embracing the phrase “ecology” (Herrin & Wright, 1988).…”

Home economics as an integrated, holistic system: revisiting Bubolz and Sontag's 1988 human ecology approach

“…In 1904, she considered calling the profession euthenics (better living), the science of controllable environments (Weigley, 1974; Fields and Connell, 2004). In 1909, after a decade of being plagued by semantics and issues of nomenclature, they settled on home oikonomikos or home economics (Weigley, 1974; Brown, 1985, 1993; Herrin and Wright, 1988; Bubolz and Sontag, 1993; Vincenti, 1997).…”

“…Bubolz and Sontag (1988) and Herrin and Wright (1988) explain that about 60 years lapsed before the profession again realigned itself with human ecology. Claiming a strong ecological heritage (refuted by Brown, 1993), many home economics programmes and departments chose human ecology as a unifying philosophical perspective, explicitly changing their names, with some changing their identities, to human ecology, beginning in the late 1960s.…”

Human Ecology Theory

“…At Utah, Herrin and Wright (1988) and Wright and Herrin (1988) have proposed a taxonomy of family ecology based on varying worldviews and assumptions about human-environment relations, units of analysis, and conceptions about the philosophy and goals of science. At the interactional level, focus is on elements of an ecosystem (i.e., persons and environments) and relations among the elements.…”