Human Ecology will continue as a pioneer, says Dean Brannon

By Susan Lang

In a future world, where people may live to be 120, where subcutaneous chips may monitor vital functions and control our living environments, where children will learn at home via web-based schools and cars will drive themselves, communities may be global but individuals will be more isolated.

Human Ecology Dean Patsy Brannon speaks with college alumnae Rosanna Frank '61 and Lucy Jarvis '38 during the Human Ecology Centennial celebration in Martha Van Rensselaer auditorium, March 30. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

"Families will continue to face relentless change and pressure; work, family, health and environmental issues will still be driving forces in the face of enormous social upheavals and dramatic changes predicted for the future," said Patsy Brannon, the Rebecca Q. and James C. Morgan Dean of the Cornell College Human Ecology, addressing several hundred people at the Human Ecology Centennial celebration March 30 in Martha Van Rensselaer auditorium.

Although times will change, researchers and extension educators in the College of Human Ecology will play the same roles they did 100 years ago when Home Economics, which would become Human Ecology, was born at Cornell. "They have been and will continue to be reformers, pioneers and scientists, committed to enhancing the lives of individuals, families and communities by applying the life, physical, social and behavioral sciences and design and fine arts to human needs," Brannon said.

After Cornell President Hunter Rawlings reviewed the history of human ecology at Cornell and Nancy Tomes, professor of history at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, reviewed the role of home economics in public health over the past century, Brannon looked to the future. But first, she drew striking parallels between the turns of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Urban poverty, waves of immigration, the Industrial/Information revolutions and pressing health concerns, for example, were some of the pervasive and profound driving forces that affected how and where we worked and put tremendous stressses on families both a century ago and today, she said. These driving forces, plus the changing gender roles throughout the latter half of the century, led to the birth of home economics a century ago and have impacted its development over the past century.

What will the role of human ecology be in the future? Citing futurists, Brannon noted some of the driving forces of tomorrow, including changing demographics as Americans live longer and the population ages and becomes ever more diverse. Accelerated globalization will make communication instantaneous and give rise to a new array of work styles that may include more 24-hour workplaces, mandatory flextime, pervasive telecommuting and the fusion of work and home environments, she said.

"It's a small, rapidly changing and increasingly interdependent world," she said. "Work-life issues will increasingly be a key."

Also, Brannon said, genomics will revolutionize healthcare, behavior and diet and the digital revolution will affect every aspect of life, including work, play, learning, health care and the life course. These forces will change how people work, communicate and build community.

"We will need a shared sense of mission, belief in meaningfulness of our work and lives and a sense of social utility," Brannon said. "But our core in human ecology will continue to focus on the interactions of individuals, families, communities and their environments and the impact of these interactions on health, economic well-being, quality of life and the environment."

While the college continues to look at the complex problems of humans in an integrative way, she said, its challenges will be to work with an increasingly diverse population and with more diverse ideas, to respect differences and to work in teams, building on those differences and looking for consensus.

"Our goals will be to excel past our expectations, to rise to the highest intellectual challenges, to maintain our sense of responsibility to community and to build on our multidisciplinary collaborations," Brannon said.

New strategies will be needed to adapt to the new stresses of the future, Brannon said, and will require human ecology researchers and educators to be nimble and creative, but they will never lose sight of the human need to be connected and the need for human touch in our lives.