Human ecology - the study and practice of relationships between the natural and the social environment - has gained prominence as scholars seek more effectively to engage with pressing global concerns. In the past seventy years most human ecology has skirted the fringes of geography, sociology and biology. This volume pioneers radical new directions. In particular, it explores the power of indigenous and traditional peoples' epistemologies both to critique and to complement insights from modernity and postmodernity.

Aimed at an international readership, its contributors show that an inter-cultural and transdisciplinary approach is required. The demands of our era require a scholarship of ontological depth: an approach that can not just debate issues, but also address questions of practice and meaning.

Organized into three sections - Head, Heart and Hand - this volume covers the following key research areas:

Theories of Human Ecology
Indigenous and Wisdom Traditions
Eco-spiritual Epistemologies and Ontology
Research practice in Human Ecology
The researcher-researched relationship
Research priorities for a holistic world

With the study of human ecology becoming increasingly imperative, this comprehensive volume will be a valuable addition for classroom use.

Contents: Foreword; Introduction: human ecology: a pedagogy of hope?, Lewis Williams with Rose Roberts and Alastair McIntosh; Part I Head: Theories of Human Ecology: The attitude of human ecology, Ulrich Loening; The challenge of radical human ecology to the academy, Alastair McIntosh; Being from and coming to: outline of an ethno-ecological framework, Ullrich Kockel; Returning the sacred: indigenous ontologies in perilous times, Makere Stewart-Harawira. Part II Heart: Radical Epistemologies of Relationship: The human ecologist as alchemist: an inquiry into Ngai Te Rangi cosmology, human agency and well-being in a time of ecological peril, Lewis Williams; Exploring identity, belonging and place-making as a transition activist, Gerri Smyth; Education for life: human ecology pedagogy as a bridge to indigenous knowing, Iain McKinnon; Sufi path: possibilities of transcending limited and limiting identity, Nayyar Javed; The promise of Orthodox Christianity for sustainable community development, Keith Morrison; North American Indians, connectivity and human ecology, Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara J. Mainguy; Living in respect: traditional knowledge of the Woodland Cree in Northern Saskatchewan, Rose Roberts. Part III Hand: Human Ecology in Practice: Teaching radical human ecology in the academy, Alastair McIntosh; Human ecology as peacebuilding, Anne Goodman; Migration, aboriginality and acculturation, Ben-Zion Weiss; The immigration experience: losses and gains for immigrant and refugee women, Judy White; Rebuilding China's economy on gendered rural family labour: a case study of generational migration stasia and ecological degradation, Yongmei Zhang and Marie Lovrod; Human ecology: from conceptual exercise to militant practice in Maranhão, István van Deursen Varga and Cristina Moreno; The place of creation: transformation, trauma and re-rooting creative praxis, Eimear O'Neill; Experiments in action research and human ecology: developing a community of practice for rural resilience pioneers, Nick Wilding; He whanaunga tera: the politics and practice of an indigenous and intercultural approach to ecological well-being, Lewis Williams; Afterword; Index.

About the Editor: Lewis Williams, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Rose Roberts, member of Lac La Ronge Indian Band and previous faculty, University of Saskatchewan, Canada and Alastair McIntosh, Centre for Human Ecology and University of Strathclyde, UK

Reviews: 'Below the clamor of a bustling world, this volume imparts the seeds of a radical alternative for human ecology. They lie beneath the surface: amid the whispered voices at the margin, in the praxis of traditional spirituality, along the dusty road of post-modernism, and from the ivy halls of science. This is not the human ecology of a prehistoric fireside or an academic symposium. It is an unconventional and timely pedagogy of hope.'
From the Foreword by Richard J. Borden, Rachel Carson Chair in Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic and Past-President/Executive Director, Society for Human Ecology

Visit the website of Alastair McIntosh

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Full contents list

Introduction

Index