ACE Lab: Applied Cultural Evolution Laboratory

Today, I presented our work on the evolution of social-ecological systems to the Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network (SEANET) research group at the University of Maine. Below are the abstract and slides.

ABSTRACT

To solve the modern environmental predicament we must understand how humans created it. Beyond emitting carbon, over-populating, polluting, or over-consuming, humans have come to dominate the planet, surviving in all terrestrial environments from the tropics to the arctic. We have achieved this through a mix of cooperation and cumulative adaptation to the environment. Dr. Waring argues that the factors that make the human species special, ultrasociality and cumulative cultural adaptation, also present the best and only hope for surviving and managing modern ecological crises. This talk will explain how human culture and cooperation both evolve, and how the dynamics of cultural adaptation play out at multiple levels of social organization in different social ecological systems, with detailed examples from around the world. Finally, Dr. Waring explains how to harness the power of human cooperation and cultural adaptation to achieve environmental sustainability. 

Slides: The Evolution of Social-Ecological Systems

Our research team presents our developing work on cooperation in the local food economy in Maine. We explain the role of social engagement in local food, and detail our measurements of cooperation in cooperative organizations such as food co-ops and food buying clubs using economic experiments. Finally, we have a discussion about the challenge of supporting the new local food economy in Maine, and what cooperation science can offer.

Mitchell Center Speaker Series, 11/20/2017. Speakers include: PI Tim Waring, Masters student Afton Hupper, PhD Student Taylor Lange, and Stakeholder and Collaborator Jeremy Bloom. on Vimeo at vimeo.com/244072231

Master’s student Afton Hupper summarized her previous work on the Bangor Food Hub project.

For a couple of years my colleague Jeremy Brooks (OSU) and I have led a group of researchers in the effort to apply cultural evolutionary thinking to sustainability research. This effort is finally starting to bear fruit with a Special Feature in the journal Sustainability Science. Papers are published as they are accepted and completed, and are available now. We are very excited to share this brand new work!

Special Feature:

Applying Cultural Evolution to Sustainability Challenges