Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

A Multilevel Evolutionary Framework For Sustainability Analysis, Timothy M. Waring, Michelle Ann Kline, Jeremy Brooks, Sandra Goff, John Gowdy, Marco Jansen, Paul Smaldino, Jennifer Jacquet

Publications

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. …