ABSTRACT
Social scientists have extended the biological concept of carrying capacity. Cultural ecologists have employed the concept of carrying capacity to explain population dynamics, settlement patterns, and other aspects of the relationships between groups and their environments primarily among hunters/gatherers and agrarian cultures. Trans Alaska oil pipeline construction and its effects on Fairbanks may serve to illuminate these concepts. Fairbanks exists within the State of Alaska which exists within the United States, which exists in an international sphere. Changes in structure are dependent upon the structure of the community when the new force is introduced into the microenvironment. In the period before pipeline construction began, Fairbanks was a relatively isolated small town with a fairly stable social, political, and economic structure. Changes in family structure observed in Fairbanks as a result of pipeline construction included new roles for family members. Changes in residence patterns may be directly attributed to the organization of the pipeline workforce and the housing shortage in Fairbanks.
