Preface, Lee Freese; components of socioecological organization - tools, resources, energy and power, Marvin E. Olsen; a socioecological perspective on social evolution, Marvin E. Olsen; sociology, human ecology and ecology, Curtis E. Beus; social entropy theory - an application of nonequilibrium thermodynamics in human ecology, Kenneth E. Bailey; sustainable regional development - a path for the greenhouse marathon, Carlo C. Jaeger; technological risk evaluation and management - a case for populist reform, Kristin Shrader-Frechette; minimum data for comparative human ecological studies - examples from studies in Amazonia, Emilio F. Moran; the elementary forms of the first proto-human society - an ecological/social network of approach, A.R. Maryanski.