The Human Ecological Niche
The human ecosystem consists of all the places where people can gather materials, knowledge and ideas for survival, comfort and betterment
Like all species we occupy our own ECOLOGICAL NICHE (EN) which is considered the "job" "role" or "place" that a species has within nature.
The EN is all of the interactions of a species with other species,
eg
agriculture, and with a variety of physical factors,
eg
soils climate
Our ecological niche embraces the entire Earth and has been created by the evolution of a knowledge-using socially interdependent lifestyle
The human EN is defined as a "cognitive niche" because we invent managerial reasoning to incorporate species and materials into our culture
To maintain ourselves in our ecological niche we depend on many kinds of tools that have multiple parts and complex methods of fabrication.
Tools arise by reasoning and learning to be used in long sequences of behaviour but when making steel or bread we are always part of nature
Social entrepreneurs innovate to tap into new social needs and the rewards are enhanced human
wellbeing
To support social entrepreneurship service providers must move from consultation to equal partnership; from 'doing to' to 'working with'
Social entrepreneurship envisages users designing and managing services rather than providing input into a professionally-controlled process
Call for community/government
coproduced
plans for living
sustainably
taking human
neeeds
/values as starting point
The human niche is set by flows of natural resources into forms of cultural capital to meet peoples needs and values
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