Sources of Social Ecology — Ecosystems and Natural Resources in Ecological Discourses

Abstract

Social ecology is first of all ecology with a knowledge core coming from natural scientific ecological research. Ecology is the study of relations between organisms and their environment, according to a classical definition of Haeckel, which has been criticised as abstract or circular by Wiegleb (1992: 66). Wiegleb looked for more empirically oriented definitions, such as that of Begon et al. (analysis of the distribution of individuals, populations and communities in space and time) or Peters (prediction of biomass, productivity and diversity in ecosystems; ibid.). Ecology has during the 20th century become an interdisciplinary subject with a combination of natural and social scientific knowledge, in human, cultural and social ecology, adopting concepts and perspectives from general systems theory, economics and anthropology. Using a double perspective seems characteristic of ecology as well as social ecology today — that of understanding human nature as biological and cultural, studying man—environment relations (including the natural and the social environment) with the core concepts of organism and social actor and coupled social and ecological systems.