num_pages: 265
description: Cultural Science introduces a new way of thinking about culture. Adopting an evolutionary and systems approach the authors argue that culture is the population-wide source of newness and innovation; it faces the future not the past. Its chief characteristic is the formation of groups or 'demes' (organised and productive subpopulation; 'demos'). Demes are the means for creating distributing and growing knowledge. However such groups are competitive and knowledge-systems are adversarial. Starting from a rereading of Darwinian evolutionary theory the book utilises multidisciplinary resources: Raymond Williams's 'culture is ordinary' approach; evolutionary science (e.g. Mark Pagel and Herbert Gintis); semiotics (Yuri Lotman); and economic theory (from Schumpeter to McCloskey). The book argues for interdisciplinary 'consilience' linking evolutionary and complexity theory in the natural sciences economics and anthropology in the social sciences and cultural communication and media studies in the humanities and creative arts. It describes what is needed for a new 'modern synthesis' for the cultural sciences. It combines analytical and historical methods to provide a framework for a general reconceptualisation of the theory of culture  one that is focused not on its political or customary aspects but rather its evolutionary significance as a generator of newness and innovation. 
language: English
title: Cultural Science: A Natural History of Stories, Demes, Knowledge and Innovation
publisher: Bloomsbury Academic