title: When ecology and sociology meet: the contributions of Edward A. Ross.
abstract: Edward A. Ross, a key figure in the early history of American sociology, developed a conceptualization of natural and social changes of the material environment that is virtually forgotten today. In this paper, these topics are discussed and located vis-à-vis Ross's intellectual contemporaries and their general take on the nature/society relationship. It is argued that ecological and sociological ideas in the early twentieth century influenced one another and, in the case of Ross, produced a perspective of social change that tried to include the dynamics of nature.
authors.affiliation: Bielefeld's Institute for Science and Technology Studies, Bielefeld University, Germany. mgrosz@uni-bielefeld.de
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gross
mesh_terms: D004463:Ecology; D049673:History, 20th Century; D012961:Sociology / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States