A Parsonian Scheme for the Study of Man and Environment, or What Human Ecology Left Behind in the Dust

Although one might have expected human ecologists to have analyzed the interrelations of the physical environment with social phenomena, their efforts, while valuable in many ways, were largely inconsequential toward that end. This paradox may be explained by 1) their conceptualization of the environment, 2) their fixation on aggregates, 3) their erection of disciplinary boundaries, and 4) the acceptance of intervention with its concomitant pressures for basic knowledge only recently. To get at this information, an orientation very different from that of traditional human ecology is required, and the Parsonian systems approach suggests the use of an intersystem congruence model, which is outlined.