ABSTRACT
Human ecology is a term that has been, and still is, characterized by confusion and a lack of consensus about what it means (Young 1983). According to Bruhn (1974:105), human ecology ‘has been proposed as a science, a separate discipline, a philosophy, a point of view, and an approach for studying a given problem’. In general, human ecology has focused on the relations between people and their immediate surroundings. This subject has been studied by academics and professional practitioners with training in established social science disciplines. Bruhn (1974) has presented a brief yet instructive overview of the development of human ecology studies in the disciplines of anthropology, geography, psychology and sociology. He also endeavours to identify whether the contributions by each of these disciplines can enable the formulation of an interdisciplinary approach for people-environment studies. His conclusion is not an optimistic one.
