Social ecology (academic field)

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Social ecology studies relationships between people and their environment, often the interdependence of people, collectives and institutions. It is the concept of how people interact with their surroundings, how they respond to it, and how these interactions impact society and the environment at large.^[1] Evolving out of biological ecology, human ecology, systems theory and ecological psychology, social ecology takes a “broad, interdisciplinary perspective that gives greater attention to the social, psychological, institutional, and cultural contexts of people-environment relations than did earlier versions of human ecology.”^[2] The concept has been employed to study a diverse array of social problems and policies within the behavioural and social sciences.^[3]

Social ecologists examine the larger picture of our "system" by examining how individuals, collectives, and institutions interact and depend on one another. This perspective enables a more efficient method of addressing the collective issues facing society^[4][5]