A new approach to social ecology is offered which attempts to integrate a variety of theories, each of which approaches the problem of man's relationship to his environment from a different perspective. It is postulated that man refers to the environment to achieve not one, but a multiplicity of purposes. To each purpose corresponds a type of environmental orientation. Four such orientations are distinguished: the instrumental, the territorial, the sentimental, and the symbolic. Each orientation is manifested in two modes, one more and one less institutionalized. To each mode corresponds a regulative mechanism or process which leads to a characteristic type of environmental organization. The types of environmental organization represent the spatial correlates of the main institutional spheres of society. Three theoretical problems are high-lighted by the paradigm: the problem of ecological institutionalization, the problem of the ecological consequences of the different orientations, and the problem of ecological transformation. The approach is intended to create the basis for a systematic comparative theory in social ecology and for a theory of ecological evolution.
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Cohen et al. (1976) studied this question.