The theory of cultural and social selection

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August 2, 2020 | History

The theory of cultural and social selection

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"In The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection, W. G. Runciman presents an original and wide-ranging account of the fundamental process by which human cultures and societies come to be of the different kinds that they are. Drawing on and extending recent advances in neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, Runciman argues that collective human behaviour should be analyzed as the acting-out of information transmitted at the three separate but interacting levels of heritable variation and competitive selection - the biological, the cultural, and the social. The implications which this carries for a reformulation of the traditional agenda of comparative and historical sociology are explored with the help of selected examples, and located within the context of current debates about sociological theory and practice. The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection is a succinct and highly imaginative contribution to one of the great intellectual debates of our times, from one of the world's leading social theorists"--Provided by publisher.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
257
Edition Availability
Cover of: The theory of cultural and social selection
The theory of cultural and social selection
2009, Cambridge University Press
in English

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Book Details


Table of Contents

Prologue : the Darwinian legacy
The neo-Darwinian paradigm
Natural selection and evoked behaviour
Cultural selection and acquired behaviour
Social selection and imposed behaviour
Selectionist theory as narrative history
Epilogue : sociology in a post-Darwinian world.

Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Published in
Cambridge, UK, New York

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
303.4
Library of Congress
HM626 .R86 2009, HM626.R86 2009

The Physical Object

Pagination
viii, 257 p. :
Number of pages
257

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL24461270M
ISBN 10
0521199514, 0521136148
ISBN 13
9780521199513, 9780521136143
LCCN
2009029185
OCLC/WorldCat
429227037, 420939838

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL15499207W

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