ABSTRACT

Cities and towns can be interpreted as human-made ecosystems that result from the interrelations between ecological, economic, material, political and social factors. Cities such as Bangkok, Cape Town or London are interesting examples of the intersection between these sets of factors, because they illustrate their diversity as well as change over long periods. Given the changing nature of these factors it is appropriate to discuss ways and means of sustaining urban areas as human ecosystems that are meant to ensure an acceptable quality of life. This approach underlines the fundamental principle that all human societies regulate their relation to the biosphere and the local environment by using a range of codes, practices and principles based on scientific knowledge, professional know-how and tacit knowledge. Societies use legislation, surveillance, monetary incentives and taxes, as well as behavioural rules and socially agreed conventions in order to ensure their sustenance (Lawrence 1996). Human ecology refers to the study of the relations, especially the reciprocal relations between people, their habitat and the environment beyond their immediate surroundings. Human groups and societies establish and maintain viable relationships with their habitat through collective mechanisms that stem from their anthropos and generate a system of relations and networks rather than independent action. Hence, the methodological framework of human ecology studies is the analysis of people in their habitual living conditions using a systemic framework that explicitly examines the reciprocal relations between individuals, groups, the components of their habitat and larger environmental conditions (Lawrence 2001). This framework is particularly appropriate for the study of urban areas because an increasing number of people live in urban ecosystems. Human ecology is explicitly anthropocentric. The anthropos refers to all the material and non-material dimensions of urban areas. These dimensions include genetic patrimony, especially the capacity of the human brain to interpret and transform land and other natural resources into urban areas; demographic characteristics such as the size and composition of human populations in cities and towns; the social organisation of human groups in urban neighbourhoods (including kinship relations and household structure); institutions including associations, rules and customs that regulate individual and collective behaviours; the local economy including all consumption and production processes; and, last but not least, the beliefs, knowledge, religion and values which

collectively constitute a world-view of individuals, groups and societies (Lawrence 2001). World-views influence the way people perceive and interpret their surroundings.