Ecological Demography: Its Place in Sociology

Abstract

A partnership between demography and human ecology is argued to be more appropriate to the systematic comprehensive treatment of social systems than any single sociological paradigm. Ecological demography deals with the evolution of societies contemporary societies territorial communities formal organizations interorganizational interdependence interregional interdependence structure and change. It offers a framework for the application of the demographic perspective to the study of both human and organizational populations. The development of subfields such as family and organizational demography has accelerated the rate at which demography has expanded its hold on the core of sociology. Moreover human ecology is becoming more formalized enhancing its capability to address structural and process-related issues of communities and societies. This approach requires a view of the core of sociology as the study of the population-environment-systems-technology complex in its structural and dynamic aspects. Sociologists are urged to compare the power of their favored paradigms with an ecological demographic approach. Such comparative analyses will help clarify the major differences between paradigms and identify lacunae the removal of which makes each paradigm more powerful in addressing the core of the discipline.