Human populations have extraordinary capabilities for generating behavioural diversity without corresponding genetic diversity or change. These capabilities and their consequences can be grouped into three categories: strategic (or cognitive), ecological and cultural-evolutionary. Strategic aspects include: (i) a propensity to employ complex conditional strategies, some certainly genetically ev...

In studies of cultural differentiation, the joint mechanisms of homophily and influence have been able to explain how distinct cultural groups can form. While these mechanisms normally lead to cultural convergence, increased levels of heterogeneity can allow them to produce global diversity. However, this emergent cultural diversity has proven to be unstable in the face of “cultural drift”small...

The modern business environment is characterised by constant economic upheaval and incessant technological changes and the pace of change has accelerated with the emergence of the Internet. Consequently the management of technological change has become a major challenge for almost all organisations. Increasingly researchers have refocused their attention from planned models of change management...

Evolutionary theorists since Darwin have been interested in the parallels and interactions between biological and cultural evolution. Recent applications of empirical techniques originally developed to analyze molecular genetic data to linguistic data offer new insights into the historical evolution of language, revealing fascinating parallels between language change and biological evolution. T...

A fundamental issue in understanding human diversity is whether or not there are regular patterns and processes involved in cultural change. Theoretical and mathematical models of cultural evolution have been developed and are increasingly being used and assessed in empirical analyses. Here, we test the hypothesis that the rates of change of features of human socio-cultural organization are gov...

NATURE CLIMATE CHANGE | VOL 3 | FEBRUARY 2013 | www.nature.com/natureclimatechange Responding to climate change is about adjusting to risks, either in reaction to or in anticipation of changes arising from changing weather and climate. Research and policy on adaptation and mitigation has largely focused on the material aspects of climate change, including risks to lives and livelihoods, the cos...

Marx, Durkheim and White produced linear theories of history, social change and cultural evolution but their theories have a common deficiency. None of them provide an ultimate explanation for social, cultural and historical change. This failure was rectified by J. S. Mill who suggested increasing human knowledge was the ultimate cause of social, cultural and historical change. However even Mil...