The Ecology of Welfare

The basic ecology of human groups—the relationship between the distribution of population and material resources and the resultant social and cultural patterns—is a subject which has occasioned far more talk than down-to-earth research. Filling this gap, George Sternlieb and Bernard Indik consider one dimension of human ecology— the interplay between housing and outlook, between the physical realities of a dwelling unit and the attitudes and responses of its inhabitants. Their book, The Ecology of Welfare, presents a detailed description of the housing and housing problems of one special subgroup-New York City's welfare recipients in the 1970's.