Human Territorial Functioning
An Empirical, Evolutionary Perspective on Individual and Small Group Territorial Cognitions, Behaviors, and Consequences

'Territorial functioning' refers to an interlocked system of sentiments, cognitions, and behaviors that are highly place-specific, and socially and culturally determined and maintaining.

Ralph B. Taylor (Author)

9780521313070, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 August 1988

380 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.502 kg

"...an intellectual treatise which provides an update review and fresh analysis of empirical works on human territoriality." Timothy Austin, Contemporary Sociology

'Territorial functioning' refers to an interlocked system of sentiments, cognitions, and behaviors that are highly place-specific, and socially and culturally determined and maintaining. In this book, Ralph Taylor explores the consequences of human territorial functioning for individuals, small groups, and the ecological systems in which they operate. His exploration is illuminated by his evolutionary perspective, and grounded in empirical studies by social scientists and in theoretical work on the evolution of social and spatial behaviors. He systematically reviews the related research and theory, and indicates the importance of territorial functioning to current social and environmental problems. Contrary to popular wisdom, he argues that territorial functioning is relevant only to limited locations, such as street blocks, and not to neighborhoods or nation states, and that it reduces conflicts and helps maintain settings and groups. His theoretically focused examination of all that has been discovered about human territorial functioning will interest a wide variety of environmental psychologists and designers, urban sociologists, social psychologists, planners, and ethologists, and their students.

1. Introduction
Part I. Origins of Human Territorial Functioning: 2. Territorial Functioning and Related Processes in Different Species
3. The Origins of Human Territorial Functioning
4. Theoretical Perspectives on Interpreting Territorial Functioning: Exactly How did it Evolve?
Part II. A Conceptual Model of Human Territorial Functioning: 5. A Perspective on Human Territorial Functioning
6. Clarifying Psychological and Ecological Consequences
Part III. Territorial Functioning in Settings of Varying Centrality: 7. Interior Residential Settings
8. Territorial Functioning in Outdoor Residential Spaces Close to the Home
9. Regular Use Settings
10. Minimal Territorial Functioning
Part IV. Applications to Social Problems: 11. Disorder
12. Resource Conservatism
Part V. Review and Prospects: 13. Summary of the General Line of Argument and its Implications
14 Future Directions for Research and Application.

Subject Areas: Psychology [JM]