Simon P Walker

The field of human ecology has been a sociological discipline for more than half a century. Focusing on the interrelations on human beings with their physical space, it emphases the systemic nature of all human behaviour.

Simon Walker began working on a specific theory of human interaction and behaviour in the late 1990's. whilst studying at Oxford. He came to call this 'Human Ecology theory'.

Human Ecology theory is a coherent, comprehensive model of human behaviour which is based on an analysis of the social space that exists between people.

The following is taken from 'A Brief Introduction to the Theory of Human Ecology' (Simon P. Walker, 200- available for purchase in Publications).

"Human Ecology is a theory about human behaviour. It is based upon the premise that, just like other species, human populations have to negotiate how to share space with others. The task of managing these boundaries, gaps, encounters and relationships between individuals, groups and populations is what determines the ostensible behaviour of those same organisms.
Human Ecology acknowledges the influence of genes on the overall capacity of human beings to behave in certain ways. However, it does not itself look to isolate the differential contributions of genes or environment (which are often impossible to tease out). Instead, it looks at the influences of how space has been, and is inhabited by that individual or group, and what effect that space has had on the individuals concerned.

Human Ecology is a theory that claims to be based on simple common sense. It takes the normal, everyday routines and tasks that we as human beings have to engage in and suggest that at a psychological level, the same tasks are required to be fulfilled.

For example, in your own garden at home (if you have one), you have to negotiate how that space is defined: How to do you mark out its boundary? How do you define that it is yours? How do you resolve disputes with your neighbour? How is it designed to create privacy but also allow relationship etc.

A human self has much the same set of tasks to fulfil on a daily basis. The space that the self inhabits is more than simple physical space; it is psychological space. Imagine for a moment that the self is a ‘landscape’. Each of us inhabits a landscape- with its own features, scale, dimensions etc. My landscape is different from yours and I meet you by coming into your landscape, and you coming into mine. This landscape is both physical (you might come to my house) but it is also non-physical (you come into my landscape when I meet you on the bus, by the photocopier, riding a bike). I carry my landscape around with me; or perhaps better, my landscape is my ‘place in the world.’

The theory of Human Ecology suggest that there are seven basic tasks that all of us, everyone, has to engage in to manage their landscape. These seven tasks are self evident:

Task 1. I must define my limits- where I end and where you begin? (Self Definition)

Task 2. I must negotiate confrontation- what happens when I transgress your space or you mine? (Responsiveness)

Task 3. I must develop the way my landscape reveals me- how am I going to be seen by passers by or intimate friends? (Self-Presentation)

Task 4. I must choose whether I am happy with my landscape or if I want to enlarge it, or contract it. (Self-Expansion)

Task 5. I must work out how I am going to get tasks done in my landscape. (Logic)

Task 6. I must decide how much proximity, or intimacy I want with people who enter my landscape. (Empathy)

Task 7. I must exert a degree of control over my landscape. (Control)

One needs to fulfil these seven tasks in relation to any physical space- a garden, office, house, school etc. They are basic to how space, any space, must be stewarded. Our psycho-social space as human beings is no different.

One of the most important ideas in Human Ecology Theory is that social space, be it in a family, or team or entire society, can be modelled along similar parameters. This is referred to as levels of granularity in the theory:

Levels of Granularity

The rules that determine how space is defined are consistent whatever the size and scale of that space. A small garden has the same basic parameters of operation as a city park; each has a boundary, must distinguish between itself and the outside world, must manage change, negotiate conflict etc. The seven tasks that are relevant to a person’s ecological space should therefore also be true for other levels of space- a team’s space for example, or an organisation’s space.

In fact, Human Ecology theory asserts that you can apply the same parameters to any kind of human space and that the dimensions remain true and firm. Take any single dimension or task, and apply it to any social or political entity and it has validity. Think, for example, of how an organisation has a front stage and a back stage- one self it presents to the world and one that it keeps reserved. Or how a country must negotiate its borders with its neighbours, or a company must decide the extent to which it wants to expand its boundaries or to consolidate them.
This reality gives the dimensions of Human Ecology as a universal application. They can be used to analyse any situation and context- a family in Dubai, an individual in Doha, a global firm from Detroit. In this way, the language that one uses to open up the landscape of an individual can be consistent with the language used to describe a society. The language of space holds true across all contexts.