Multidimensional and reductionist strategies in Chicagoan sociologу: The case of human ecology

• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology 2009-06-01
• Series: Социологический журнал
• Online Access: http://jour.fnisc.ru/upload/journals/1/articles/1072/submission/proof/1072-61-2041-1-10-20150321.pdf

The author considers development of human ecology as one of important components in the Chicagoan sociological tradition. Its different versions are analyzed in terms of their presuppositional foundations. The general sociological frame of reference offered byR.E. Parkis treated as a multidimensional presuppositional matrix and is taken as a point of departure for analysis of the later versions of human ecology. Two main lines in a development of human ecology are separated. The first (L. Wirth, E.C. Hughes) is characterized by maintaining the original Park’s frame of reference and by incorporation of human ecology as one of perspectives into multidimensional sociology. The second (R.D. McKenzie, J.A. Quinn, A.H. Hawley) is characterized by a gradual transformation of human ecology into a separate discipline and then into a sociological paradigm. The author demonstrates how this development is secured by reduction of multidimensionality contained in Park’s original frame of reference.