Not Just a School: Explorations and Theoretical Considerations in Relation to the Human Eco-Niche

The environment tends to fall in the background of the analysis of i.e., children’s development or the wellbeing of young people; this often limits the unit of analysis to the individual. However, if we wish to move beyond an analysis of the person as an isolated entity, we need concepts that enable us to examine variations on an institutional level, as well as connecting these variations to the concrete developmental possibilities for the person. Studies show how similar behaviour settings, such as two schools, may offer – or invite for – quite different possibilities for action. A school is not just a school as it may share several similarities with another school, but certainly also differences. Even so, institutional settings are often considered ‘similar’ and thus tend to fall in the background or become blurry in terms of analytical focus. This paper explores and argues for the potential of central concepts from ecological psychology, by looking to the work of Gibson, and Barker & Wright, respectively, as their work emphasizes the-person-in-the-environment. Furthermore, I shall attempt to add productively to Gibson’s notion of eco-niche, as it requires further elaboration to be adequate for the human life-world.