Using the example of conflict escalation in former Yugoslavia, a common framework of the mechanisms leading to conflict escalation is developed in this paper. Escalation of ethno-nationalist violence is described as an endogenous feature of the nation. The principle of the nation may succeed in being an organising principle for integrating large-scale social groups. However, it may also generat...

The potential benefits of cooperation in microorganisms can be undermined by genetic conflict within social groups, which can take the form of 'cheating'. For cooperation to succeed as an evolutionary strategy, the negative effects of such conflict must somehow be either prevented or mitigated. To generate an interpretive framework for future research in microbial behavioural ecology, here we o...

germ–soma differentiation as a model for the molecular biology of development. Certain slime mold genotypes get into the germline tissue more frequently than other neighboring genotypes in the aggregation [5]. An aggregation with a higher frequency of those that bias their reproductive success leads to shorter stalks and lower total reproductive output: competition for reproduction opposes the ...

objectives: violence is a widespread problem that occurs all over the word among all ages, genders, races, educational level and socio- economic groups.  the aim of this study was to investigate modeling of different processes that could account for the link between experiencing spouse abuse in women and psychology, psychopathology, social and demographic factors. methods: data were gathered th...

This special issue brings together a series of eight articles dealing with experiments on conflict and conflict resolution. The papers presented here originate from a workshop on experiments on conflict held in Rennes, France, in May 2012. The aim of the special issue is threefold: (i) investigating the main determinants of conflicts, (ii) measuring the consequences of conflicts in terms of soc...

We present a theory of ethnic conflict in which coalitions formed along ethnic lines compete for the economy’s resources. The role of ethnicity is to enforce coalition membership: in ethnically homogeneous societies members of the losing coalition can defect to the winners at low cost, and this rules out conflict as an equilibrium outcome. We derive a number of implications of the model relatin...

Issues around health equity in conflict-affected fragile states have received very little analysis to date. This paper examines the main factors that threaten health equity, the populations that are most vulnerable and potential strategies to improve health equity. The methods employed are a review of the published and grey literature, key informant interviews and an analysis of data on social ...

We explored age differences in the amount of personal effort that people put forth to maintain relationships across adulthood in diverse family-life contexts. More specifically, we examined how personal effort in social relationships is age-differently related to emotional closeness and perceptions of reciprocity. A total of 658 early-midlife (37 years) and old-age adults (73 years) from three ...