About Human Ecology

Human Ecology is an interdisciplinary academic subject that deals with the interaction between humans and their total, socio-cultural and ecological environment, including the interaction of local and global processes.

The current research focuses on the overarching theme of sustainable development in a wider context of global environmental change. This research, performed in the form of doctoral theses and research projects and programs, includes two focal areas:

1. Conflicts in land, water and other resource use in rural and coastal areas, e.g. with regard to food and energy production, effects on livelihoods, changing practices of resource use in production and consumption;
2. Sustainable urban development, e.g. with regard to transport and mobility problems and resource use. Methodological linkages between the two main research themes are provided through the analysis of interactions of social- and ecological systems and through inter- and transdisciplinary approaches for bridging different disciplinary knowledge fields and non-academic and practical knowledge. Examples of specific research issues are resource use and management (especially adaptive, participatory and co-management approaches), collaborative planning and the maintenance of biodiversity dimensions and ecosystem services for society.

The research theme sustainable urban development is currently carried out in the MISTRA-funded Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Futures and the EU-funded international research project about sustainable development of metropolitan coastal areas, SECOA (Solutions to Environmental Contrasts in Coastal Areas). The multidimensionality of global environmental change including climate, has a focus in this project.