Focuses on the idea of sustainable development, asking what conditions are necessary for humanity to achieve continued improvement in standards of living. This book reviews issues of demographic change and environmental protection in sketching out the means of managing the Earth's fragile ecosystem in the decades to come.

This superb overview of sociological human ecology over the past 50 years engages the subject in terms of conceptual and theoretical issues, and in its empirical application to practical problems. The text focuses on the idea of sustainable development, asking what conditions are necessary for humanity to achieve continued improvement in standards of living. Contributors review issues of demographic change and environmental protection in sketching out the means of managing the Earth's fragile ecosystem in the decades to come. They emphasize that fundamental changes in human patterns of activity and organization are making sustainability an increasingly realistic policy goal.

Conceptual and Theoretical Considerations: Human Ecology, Population, and Development
A.H. Hawley. Human Ecology, Sociology, and Demography
D.L. Poston, Jr., W.P. Frisbie. The Ecological Complex: A Conceptual Elaboration
M. Micklin, D.F. Sly. POETS-PACS-LEDD: From Paradigm to Theory to Policy in Human Ecological Perspective
P.R. Eberts. An Ecological Theory of Organizational Structuring
C.E. Bidwell, J.D. Kasarda. Ecology's Contribution to Cross-National Theory and Research
W.P. Frisbie, A.H.M. Al-Khalifah. The Human Ecology of Agriculture in the United States
S.H. Murdock, D.E. Albrecht. Empirical Research: Division of Labor and Morphological Response: Evidence from Saudi Arabia
W.P. Frisbie, A.H.M Al-Khalifah.The Determinants of the Division of Labor in China
M.X. Mao. The Effects of Public and Private Sustenance Organizations on Population Redistribution in New York State
T.A. Hirschl, et al. Toward an Integrated Ecological-Sociological Theory of Suburbanization
S.-S. Hwang, S.H. Murdock. Spatial Segregation and Social Differentiation in China
D.L. Poston, Jr., et al. 4 Additional Articles. Name Index. Subject Index.