| Description |
1 online resource |
| Summary |
"Cultural Science introduces a new way of thinking about culture. Adopting an evolutionary and systems approach, the authors argue that culture is the population-wide source of newness and innovation; it faces the future, not the past. Its chief characteristic is the formation of groups or 'demes' (organised and productive subpopulation; 'demos'). Demes are the means for creating, distributing and growing knowledge. However, such groups are competitive and knowledge-systems are adversarial. Starting from a rereading of Darwinian evolutionary theory, the book utilises multidisciplinary resources: Raymond Williams's 'culture is ordinary' approach; evolutionary science (e.g. Mark Pagel and Herbert Gintis); semiotics (Yuri Lotman); and economic theory (from Schumpeter to McCloskey). Successive chapters argue that:-Culture and knowledge need to be understood from an externalist ('linked brains') perspective, rather than through the lens of individual behaviour; -Demes are created by culture, especially storytelling, which in turn constitutes both politics and economics; -The clash of systems - including demes - is productive of newness, meaningfulness and successful reproduction of culture; -Contemporary urban culture and citizenship can best be explained by investigating how culture is used, and how newness and innovation emerge from unstable and contested boundaries between different meaning systems;-The evolution of culture is a process of technologically enabled 'demic concentration' of knowledge, across overlapping meaning-systems or semiospheres; a process where the number of demes accessible to any individual has increased at an accelerating rate, resulting in new problems of scale and coordination for cultural science to address. The book argues for interdisciplinary 'consilience', linking evolutionary and complexity theory in the natural sciences, economics and anthropology in the social sciences, and cultural, communication and media studies in the humanities and creative arts. It describes what is needed for a new 'modern synthesis' for the cultural sciences. It combines analytical and historical methods, to provide a framework for a general reconceptualisation of the theory of culture - one that is focused not on its political or customary aspects but rather its evolutionary significance as a generator of newness and innovation."-- Provided by publisher. |
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"Cultural Science introduces a new way of thinking about culture. Adopting an evolutionary and systems approach, the authors argue that culture is the population-wide source of newness and innovation; it faces the future, not the past. Its chief characteristic is the formation of groups or 'demes' (organised and productive subpopulation; 'demos'). Demes are the means for creating, distributing and growing knowledge. However, such groups are competitive and knowledge-systems are adversarial. Starting from a rereading of Darwinian evolutionary theory, the book utilises multidisciplinary resources: Raymond Williams's 'culture is ordinary' approach; evolutionary science (e.g. Mark Pagel and Herbert Gintis); semiotics (Yuri Lotman); and economic theory (from Schumpeter to McCloskey). Successive chapters argue that: -Culture and knowledge need to be understood from an externalist ('linked brains') perspective, rather than through the lens of individual behaviour; -Demes are created by culture, especially storytelling, which in turn constitutes both politics and economics; -The clash of systems - including demes - is productive of newness, meaningfulness and successful reproduction of culture; -Contemporary urban culture and citizenship can best be explained by investigating how culture is used, and how newness and innovation emerge from unstable and contested boundaries between different meaning systems; -The evolution of culture is a process of technologically enabled 'demic concentration' of knowledge, across overlapping meaning-systems or semiospheres; a process where the number of demes accessible to any individual has increased at an accelerating rate, resulting in new problems of scale and coordination for cultural science to address"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Note |
Print version record. |
| Contents |
Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Intro; Chapter 1 Curiously Parallel; The Nature of Culture; How each member ought to act; Curiously parallel; Certain favoured words: Social Darwinism?; Our only organon3; Nature versus culture?; Caught knapping; Part 1 -- Culture Makes Groups; Chapter 2 Externalism ; Self-creation; Communication creates individuals; Conciliating culture and knowledge: The cultural science approach; The 10 Recommendments9; Linked brains and externalized knowledge; Chapter 3 Demes; The creation of the self; Gallipoli -- The creation of national character |
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Granddads -- On not having a story . . . Göbekli Tepe -- V. Gordon Childe and revolution; Gotcha?44 -- The big guns of storytelling . . . Fall silent?; Digital stories to constitute a new polity; Chapter 4 Malvoisine ; Big cooperation -- Universal or adversarial?; Big culture5; Malvoisine; Systemic violence; What happens when culture gets really big?; Chapter 5 Citizens; What is a citizen?; Rational citizen theory; The evolutionary puzzle of citizenship ; Creative citizenship; Health care versus racketeering?; Artists, consumers and the clash of systems; Part 2 -- Groups Make Knowledge |
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Chapter 6 MeaningfulnessWhat evolves?; Something very much like knowledge; Meaning and language; meaningfulness and culture; Knowledge evolves; The cultural evolution of gentlemen (a short but instructive digression); The nature of culture and beyond biosemiotics; Meaningfulness and marriageability; Contesting cultural order; Chapter 7 Newness; The Janus face of culture; The dynamic scale of cultural change; Randomness makes variety; Consciousness makes creativity; Demes make newness; The economic sociology of newness: 'Irritating impact'; Chapter 8 Waste |
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On the efficiency of cultural productionTrillions and trillions; Cultural efficiency; Children and waste; Wasted words?; The childish invention of culture ; Chapter 9 Extinction; Resilience and Ossification; A prosocial groupish animal, honed by conflict and extinction; How to protect valuable things; What is cultural extinction?; Conquest as cooperation ; Rules and ossification; Great cities as generators of semiosis; Complex culture; Outro; Chapter 10 A Natural History of Demic Concentration; The use of culture in society; Implications; A natural history of demic concentration |
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How culture worksAcknowledgements; References; Index |
| Local Note |
Bloomsbury Publishing Bloomsbury Open Access |
| Subject |
Culture -- Philosophy.
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Knowledge, Sociology of.
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Cultural studies.
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Media, information & communication industries.
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Media studies.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Media Studies.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
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Culture -- Philosophy.
(OCoLC)fst00885075
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Knowledge, Sociology of. (OCoLC)fst00988190
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| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
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| Added Author |
Potts, Jason, 1972-
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| Other Form: |
Print version: Hartley, John, 1948- Cultural science 9781849666022 (DLC) 2014014855 (OCoLC)878224831 |
| ISBN |
9781849666046 (electronic book) |
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1849666040 (electronic book) |
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9781849666022 |
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1849666024 |
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