human ecology
1
5.7
- noun
- /ˈhjuːmən ɪˈkɒlədʒi/
- Specialized
:
ecología humana
- Human Ecology students regularly incorporate non-Western viewpoints and aesthetics into their work.
- professor of human ecology
- human ecology at Rutgers University
Examples
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Human Ecology faculty explore the challenges working mothers face to balance their careers and families.
Academic text (2012) -
The course pairs law students with Ph.D. students in human ecology to examine hypothetical court cases.
Academic text (2005) -
My point is about human ecology, not human medicine.
Blog text (29) -
Thus, recent studies in human ecology continue to be very explicit about interactions and present detailed quantitative data.
Academic text (1998) -
Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and destiny.
Academic text (1999) -
Education has successfully linked human ecology to decision-making in an increasingly global society, providing the moral basis for decisions, the nature and management of risk, and dealing with uncertainty.
Academic text (1999) -
Since maturing as a field in the 1960s, human ecology has offered perspectives that have sometimes augmented and sometimes challenged traditional views of Viking exploration and settlement.
Academic text (1998) -
The study of human ecology helps us understand how different communities adapt to their environments.
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In the field of human ecology, researchers investigate the impact of urbanization on local ecosystems.
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Courses in human ecology explore the interconnectedness of social systems and environmental sustainability.
Synonyms
Study of how people and the land affect each other
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'human' (relating to people) + 'ecology' (study of relationships with the environment) yields a clear meaning of studying people–environment relationships. This follows a common noun-noun compounding pattern (and has close equivalents in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE's sense.
Etymology
Human ecology comes from combining human (people) and ecology (the study of how living things fit into the place they live). Picture people like animals in their place, living with the land, buildings, and other people. So, human ecology means 'the study of relationships between people and their environment'.