euthenics

[prettygoodword]

euthenics (yoo-THEN-iks) - n., the study of the improvement of human functioning and well-being by improvement of living conditions.


Also, more generally, the study of the effects of place on people, but the given sense is definitely more common. Historically, human growth and body size has directly correlated with improved sanitation and food quality. Contrast eugenics, the improvement of human well-being by selective breeding i.e. improvement of genome. Coined by 1905 by industrial and safety engineer (and food safety activist) Ellen Swallow Richards from Ancient Greek euthēnein, to thrive.

---L.

Comments

[dewline]

Thank you!

[prettygoodword]

It's a useful term.

[full_metal_ox]

Its logical antonym, “dysthenics”, would have obvious applicability and utility; hostile architecture, the endangerment of affordable housing, and food deserts come to mind offhand. Unfortunately, the handful of usages I’m finding online seem to be coming from Nazi rhetoric.

[prettygoodword]

I hesitate to prod the beach rubble (because I have read Sappho) but ... original Nazis or their epigones?

[full_metal_ox]

Both: the ilk of Stormfront and Incels.is, but also texts with titles like War and the Breed, by David Starr Jordan (1915).

[prettygoodword]

Innnnnnteresting. Thanks.