From a social systems theory perspective, globalisation can be conceptualised as an evolutionary social process. By fusing systems theories, evolutionary theories, and organisation theories, globalisation becomes apparent as a historical social process, which encompasses the emergence and reproduction of social systems such as firms or other organisations within the wider process of the globali...

Why do we age? This question has baffled scientists for 150 years and remains unresolved. Scientists disagree over even the general nature of aging. Is aging the result of fundamental limitations that apply to all living things, do we age because our bodies do not try harder not to age, or are organisms designed by nature or " programmed " to age because a limited life span conveys some evoluti...

Theories of music origins and the role of musical emotions in the mind are reviewed. Most existing theories contradict each other, and cannot explain mechanisms or roles of musical emotions in workings of the mind, nor evolutionary reasons for music origins. Music seems to be an enigma. Nevertheless, a synthesis of cognitive science and mathematical models of the mind has been proposed describi...

Classic theories for the evolution of senescence predict that rates of aging should be highest in populations in which extrinsic mortality is high. This predication is called into question in new work by David Reznick and co-workers, who found that guppies Poecilia reticulata derived from natural populations with high levels of predation live the longest in the laboratory. This study illustrate...

This article reviews some studies testing evolutionary theories of aging and shows that they are not always confirmed. Nevertheless, many gerontologists consider now that these theories provide a general explanation of the aging process. In such conditions, we may wonder whether time has come to provisionally accept these theories in order to redirect the research efforts of gerontologists towa...

Evolutionary Theories of Cultural Change: An Empirical Perspective Richard R. Nelson Columbia University Version: January18, 2005 Abstract Evolutionary theorizing in the social sciences has a long tradition, going back well before Darwin. Much of contemporary evolutionary theorizing by social scientists about the processes of change at work in various aspects of human culture for example scienc...

This paper addresses a process gap in economic theories of firm-boundaries by explaining switching costs during governance change in the case of outsourcing. Three perspectives on firm boundaries are considered: modern property right theory, modern transaction cost theory, and evolutionary theory. The first explains firm boundaries by the optimal allocation of residual decision rights to physic...

Arguments are presented suggesting that aging in mammals is the result of a complex life span regulation system that evolved because life span limitation produces direct evolutionary benefit. This concept, if valid and pursued, could have a significant effect on efforts to combat aging processes by providing additional targets for potential intervention. A complex life span regulation system im...

This paper examines two sides of a coin that relate to learning from dialogue. The first side of our coin relates to the role of dialogue in learning; the second side is related to the part that observations of learning can play in the design of computer-based learning environments. In order to define the scope of the paper two complementary research question are examined. The first question is...