ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical and sociological status of the man-environment field, with an eye toward providing some perspective about its roots, progress to date, philosophical underpinnings and potential future. It analyses styles of problem-solving by practitioners and behavioral scientists. The chapter discusses the history of relations between behavioral scientists and practitioners. It outlines some philosophical “models of man” implicit in present-day work in the man-environment field, which may be considered as alternative strategies. Progress in the man-environment area depends on the joining of forces by scientists and practitioners. However, barriers to mutual understanding exist, because of differences in styles of practitioners and researchers. A model for the structural components in the field of Man-Environment Relations based on the organization of the Central Nervous System is described. Environmental pollution is the accumulation of unwanted side-effects of man-made structures: its greatest threat is to biosocial cognition.
