A multilevel evolutionary framework for sustainability analysis

Sustainability theory can help achieve desirable social-ecological states by generalizing lessons across contexts and improving the design of sustainability interventions. To accomplish these goals, we argue that theory in sustainability science must (1) explain the emergence and persistence of social-ecological states, (2) account for endogenous cultural change, (3) incorporate cooperation dynamics, and (4) address the complexities of multilevel social-ecological interactions. We suggest that cultural evolutionary theory broadly, and cultural multilevel selection in particular, can improve on these fronts. We outline a multilevel evolutionary framework for describing social-ecological change and detail how multilevel cooperative dynamics can determine outcomes in environmental dilemmas. We show how this framework complements existing sustainability frameworks with a description of the emergence and persistence of sustainable institutions and behavior, a means to generalize causal patterns across social-ecological contexts, and a heuristic for designing and evaluating effective sustainability interventions. We support these assertions with case examples from developed and developing countries in which we track cooperative change at multiple levels of social organization as they impact social-ecological outcomes. Finally, we make suggestions for further theoretical development, empirical testing, and application.

[1]  E. Ostrom.  Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems , 2010, American Economic Review.

[2]  Charles Perreault.  The Pace of Cultural Evolution , 2012, PloS one.

[3]  K. Arrow,et al.  Social-ecological systems as complex adaptive systems: modeling and policy implications , 2012, Environment and Development Economics.

[4]  Dennis D. Embry,et al.  Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change , 2014, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[5]  Vladislav Kantchev Shunturov,et al.  Dormitory residents reduce electricity consumption when exposed to real‐time visual feedback and incentives , 2007 .

[6]  P. Crutzen,et al.  The Anthropocene: Are Humans Now Overwhelming the Great Forces of Nature , 2007, Ambio.

[7]  E. Ostrom.  Collective action and the evolution of social norms , 2000, Journal of Economic Perspectives.

[8]  Kevin N Laland,et al.  Transmission fidelity is the key to the build-up of cumulative culture , 2012, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[9]  L. Ruttan.  Sociocultural Heterogeneity and the Commons , 2006, Current Anthropology.

[10]  P. McLeod,et al.  Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in Small Groups , 1996 .

[11]  C. Kuster,et al.  Long-term trends in subsistence fishing patterns and coral reef fisheries yield from a remote Fijian island , 2005 .

[12]  M. Collard,et al.  Investigating cultural evolution through biological phylogenetic analyses of Turkmen textiles , 2002 .

[13]  C. Pahl-Wostl,et al.  A conceptual framework for analysing adaptive capacity and multi-level learning processes in resource governance regimes , 2009 .

[14]  Vladas Griskevicius,et al.  Naturally Green: Harnessing Stone Age Psychological Biases to Foster Environmental Behavior , 2014 .

[15]  P. Smaldino.  The cultural evolution of emergent group-level traits , 2014, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[16]  S. Alkire,et al.  Bhutan: Gross National Happiness and the GNH index , 2012 .

[17]  J. Fletcher,et al.  TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY OF GROUP SELECTION , 2013, Evolution; international journal of organic evolution.

[18]  Dustin J Penn,et al.  The Evolutionary Roots of Our Environmental Problems: Toward a Darwinian Ecology , 2003, The Quarterly Review of Biology.

[19]  L. Hooghe,et al.  European integration from the 1980s: State-centric v. multi-level governance , 1996 .

[20]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  Complexity of Coupled Human and Natural Systems , 2007, Science.

[21]  E. Ostrom.  Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change , 2010 .

[22]  George Sugihara,et al.  A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems , 2009 .

[23]  Fernando Vega-Redondo,et al.  Competition and Culture in an Evolutionary Process of Equilibrium Selection: A Simple Example , 1993 .

[24]  J. Lansing,et al.  Emergent Properties of Balinese Water Temple Networks: Coadaptation on a Rugged Fitness Landscape , 1993 .

[25]  David Sloan Wilson,et al.  Generalizing the core design principles for the efficacy of groups , 2013, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

[26]  M. Wade,et al.  Group selection and social evolution in domesticated animals , 2010, Evolutionary applications.

[27]  D. Wilson,et al.  Multilevel selection and the social transmission of behavior , 1999, Human nature.

[28]  J. Bergh,et al.  A group selection perspective on economic behavior, institutions and organizations , 2009 .

[29]  Dirk Semmann,et al.  Gossip as an alternative for direct observation in games of indirect reciprocity , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[30]  Simon Kirby,et al.  Cumulative cultural evolution in the laboratory: An experimental approach to the origins of structure in human language , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[31]  J. Veitayaki.  Traditional and community - based marine resources management system in Fiji: an evolving integrated process , 1998 .

[32]  E. Ostrom.  Do institutions for collective action evolve? , 2014 .

[33]  Timothy M. Waring,et al.  Ethnic dominance damages cooperation more than ethnic diversity: results from multi-ethnic field experiments in India , 2013 .

[34]  Peter Richerson,et al.  Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence , 2014, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[35]  R. Kasperson,et al.  A framework for vulnerability analysis in sustainability science , 2003, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[36]  L. Dugatkin,et al.  Group Selection and Assortative Interactions , 1997, The American Naturalist.

[37]  Alex Mesoudi,et al.  How cultural evolutionary theory can inform social psychology and vice versa. , 2009, Psychological review.

[38]  P. Stern,et al.  A second environmental science: human-environment interactions. , 1993, Science.

[39]  T. Mappes,et al.  Between-group competition and human cooperation , 2008, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[40]  M. Nowak.  Five Rules for the Evolution of Cooperation , 2006, Science.

[41]  E. Smith.  Endless forms: human behavioural diversity and evolved universals , 2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[42]  K. Laland,et al.  Towards a unified science of cultural evolution. , 2006, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[43]  J. M. Smith.  The theory of games and the evolution of animal conflicts. , 1974, Journal of theoretical biology.

[44]  K. Arrow,et al.  Social Norms and Global Environmental Challenges: The Complex Interaction of Behaviors, Values, and Policy , 2013, Bioscience.

[45]  R. Mcelreath,et al.  Shared Norms and the Evolution of Ethnic Markers , 2003, Current Anthropology.

[46]  H. Mooney,et al.  Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems , 1997, Renewable Energy.