Reciprocal Model of Groups

In sociology and social work, the reciprocal model is an ecological perspective of groups in which the central thesis is that groups are not only affected by the surrounding environment but they also affect it---with the surrounding environment consisting not only of "things" external to the group but also of people, most of whom are composed in group collectives themselves, e.g., families, organizations, companies, unions, congregations, clubs, agencies, institutions, and so forth (Jason, 1992). However, the primary historical antecedent of social ecological, reciprocal theory is not social or behavioral, it is biological.

According to Warshay (1981), the basic ecological approach postulating reciprocal interaction between organisms and their environment is derived from biological science. Specifically, it is derived from the field of ecology which consists of the study of relationships between organisms (plants, animals) to their physical and biological environment. The science of ecology, Warshay states, originally sought to explain these relationships using the concept of the ecosystem which was defined as the complex of a community of organisms and its environmental functioning as an ecological unit.

The functional units of an ecosystem are groups of interbreeding organisms living in the same region, known as populations. Groups of interdependent populations are know as communities.

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ment. According to Hudson (1986), almost since the inception of the biological model of ecology, it began to be used as a basic paradigm in a variety of fields including history, anthropology and sociology. In this regard, Hudson points out that one of the first applications of ecological principles to people was in the field of sociology which referred to the application as the study of "human" ecology. Hudson notes that French historiographer, Fernand Braudel, borrowed liberally from sociological applications of ecological, reciprocal theory for his now famous work in the Annales school. An excellent example of how the ecological, reciprocal model has been used in sociology can be seen in Palmer's (1974) early delineation of the ecology of resettlement schemes. The resettlement scheme, as delineated by Palmer, is explained within the context of worldwide political and social systems interacting and interchanging social and cultural information and energy. The model is illustrated in case studies of the gezira scheme in the sudan and the shimba hills scheme in kenya, east africa. For example, it is noted that the shimba hills contained about 1,200 settler families living on as many 20-acre plots. The history of the scheme fr
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