Following a paper given at the 2008 Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) 'Agency' conference, Goodbun was invited to submit a paper to the peer-reviewed international AHRA online architectural journal 'Field'. The paper was accepted for publication in the fourth issue of the journal, which was on 'ecology'. The published paper is a synopsis of key aspects of his PhD research, which informed his contribution to the SCIBE research project and the AD ‘Scarcity’ publication. This paper was the first publication of much of his thinking with regard to this material, and is referenced in recent PhDs (eg Jody Boehnert and Doug Spencer), and university reading lists (including the Bartlett School of Architecture, and the seminars of Peter Harries-Jones, a leading Bateson scholar).

The paper considers how ecology – a term that emerged into popular consciousness in the 1960’s as a byword for holistic/ systemic thinking – has returned to prominence in recent years across disciplines beyond its original terms of use, including design theory and practice. Within the natural sciences, ecology is above all characterised by a holistic approach that focuses on organisation and the internal/external relational dynamics of ‘wholes’ or ‘assemblages’ such as ecosystems. Goodbun reviews how the concept of ecology has developed historically, and defines ecology by drawing together the ecological aesthetics in the work of Gregory Bateson, and the urban political ecology of contemporary neo-Marxist geographers such as Erik Swyngedouw, David Harvey and Matthew Gandy. He adds to a growing body of research relating political conceptions of ecology at an urban and planning scale to the possibility of an aesthetics of ecology more directly related to architectural and design-based thinking.