Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation

Description: Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation [Hardcover] Hartley, John and Potts, Jason Product Overview This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on 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. Read more Details Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Academic (November 20, 2014) Language ‏ : ‎ English Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 264 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1849666024 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 22 Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.62 x 9.21 inches Best Sellers Rank: #11,147,073 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #7,304 in Media Studies (Books) #15,888 in Anthropology (Books) #37,922 in Communication & Media Studies #7,304 in Media Studies (Books) #15,888 in Anthropology (Books) We have been selling used books since 2012, and we've learned that the most important thing is doing good business. Honesty is our policy. Free Shipping We ship worldwide. We have multiple warehouses around the world, so please note the extended handling time on certain listings.

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