Evolution and Ecology of Social Systems

Dozent/in	Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Rudolf Stichweh
Veranstaltungsart	Masterseminar
Code	HS101350
Semester	Herbstsemester 2010
Durchführender Fachbereich	Soziologie
Studienstufe	Master
Termin/e	wöchentlich (Mi), ab 22.09.2010, 10:00 - 12:00 Uhr, Residenz R 0.01
Umfang	2 Semesterwochenstunden
Inhalt	The seminar concentrates on the interrelation between the sociological theory of social systems (in the tradition of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann) and evolutionary thinking in the Darwinian tradition in biology and the social sciences. Among the main subjects in the seminar are: Evolutionary origins of social systems Information and communication as evolutionary inventions Population thinking in systems theory Selection theories as a general kind of theory Differentiation theory and evolutionary theory (two kinds of theorizing the history of social systems) Evolution of semantics Cultural transfer and processes of learning Cultural diversification and speciation Evolution of society: Micro and Macro aspects Ecology of social systems (the Chicago tradition and other variants)
Voraussetzungen	B.A. degree; exceptions have to be discussed with the organizer.
Sprache	Englisch
Hinweise	The seminar has been conceived as a seminar held in English. If all participants are German speakers and a preference for the German language should be prevalent we can of course switch the language.
Hörer-/innen	Nein
Kontakt	rudolf.stichweh@unilu.ch or marta.waser@unilu.ch (secretary)
Literatur	- Armen A. Alchian, Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy, 58, 1950, 211-221 - W. Graham Astley, The Two Ecologies. Population and Community Perspectives on Organizational Evolution, Administrative Science Quarterly 30, 1985, 224-241 - Donald. T. Campbell, Variation and Selective Retention in Sociocultural Evolution. Pp. 19–49 in, Herbert R. Barringer et al., eds., Social Change in Developing Areas, Cambridge Mass. 1965 - Niklas Luhmann, Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt 1997, Vol. 1, Ch. III, 3-6, pp. 451-497 - Robert E. Park, Human Ecology, American Journal of Sociology, 42, 1936, 1-15 - Peter J. Richerson/Robert Boyd, Not By Genes Alone. How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, Chicago 2005, Ch. 3, Culture Evolves, pp. 58-98 - Dan Sperber, Anthropology and Psychology: Towards an Epidemiology of Representations, Man, 20, 1985, 73-89 - Joseph A. Schumpeter, The Creative Response in Economic History, The Journal of Economic History 7, 1947, 149-159 - Rudolf Stichweh, Evolutionary Theory and the Theory of World Society, Soziale Systeme, 13, 2007, 528-542