Social ecology is a scientific discipline on the harmonization of the relationship between nature and society. This branch of knowledge analyzes human relations (taking into account the correspondence of the humanistic side) with development needs. The theoretical foundations of comprehending the world in its general concepts are used, expressing the degree of historical unity of nature and man.
The conceptual and categorical structure of science is in constant development and improvement. This process of change is quite diverse and penetrates into all spheres of social ecology, both in objective and subjective terms. In a peculiar way, scientific creativity is reflected and the evolution of the methods of scientific search and the interests of not only individual scientists, but also various collectives as a whole are influenced.
The approach to nature and society that social ecology proposes to apply may, to a certain extent, seem intellectually demanding. Along with this, he avoids some simplification of dualism and reductionism. Social ecology seeks to show the slow and multiphase process of transformation of nature into society, taking into account all the differences on the one hand and, on the other, the degree of interpenetration.
One of the paramount tasks facing researchers at the stage of the modern approval of science is the definition of a general approach to understanding the subject of discipline. Despite the certain progress that has been achieved in the study of different areas of interaction between man, nature and society, a large amount of material published over the past decades, there is still much debate about what specifically studies social ecology.
An increasing number of researchers prefer an expanded interpretation of the subject of discipline. For example, MarkoviΔ (Serbian scientist) believed that social ecology, considered by him as a private sociology, studies the specific connections that are established between a person and his environment. Based on this, the tasks of the discipline may consist in studying the influence of a combination of social and natural factors that make up the environment on a person, as well as the impact of the individual on external conditions, perceived as the boundaries of human life.
There is to some extent another, however, not contradicting the above explanation, interpretation of the concept of the subject of discipline. So, Haskin and Akimova consider social ecology as a complex of separate branches of science that explore the relationship between social structures (starting with the family itself and other small public groups and groups), as well as between a person and the natural, public environment. Using this interpretation, it becomes possible to more fully study the socio-environmental problems of our time. In this case, the approach to understanding the subject of discipline is not limited to the framework of a single humanities. Along with this, attention is focused on the interdisciplinary nature of the discipline.
Defining the subject of social ecology, some researchers are inclined to note especially the significance with which it is endowed. The role of discipline, in their opinion, is very significant in the issue of harmonizing the interaction of mankind and its environment. A number of authors believe that the task of social ecology, first of all, is to study the laws of nature and society. In this case, these laws are understood as the principles of self-regulation in the biosphere, applied by a person in his life.