CCBC Summer Workshop 2013

This year's workshop will involve presentation and development of new research ideas for collaboration between CCBC members. The workshop is on Monday 8th July 2013. Contact Jeremy Kendal if you'd like to attend.

Exaptation conference

Register for this interdisciplinary conference, 19-20th March 2012, in association with the IAS and CCBC. Visiting speakers include Prof. Mike O’Brien (University of Missouri), Prof. Paolo Saviotti (Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble), and Prof. Alex Bentley (Bristol University).

Exaptation, Uncertainty and Technological Change

Prof. Robert Layton is running 2 two day events on 11-12th February 2012 and 19-20th March 2012, funded by the IAS and in association with CCBC.  Please email r.h.layton@durham.ac.uk to register.  

Two-day seminar

11^th-12^th February 2012 (Saturday and Sunday) Anthropology Seminar Room (Dawson 104)

A 2 day inter-departmental workshop in which representatives from interested departments discuss the concept of exaptation and its application in their fields in a relatively informal fashion,  presenting initial position papers for discussion. This workshop will follow up issues raised at a preliminary meeting  held during the initial planning stage for events to take place during 2012-13. Participating departments will include: Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Business School and Education, with the possibility of contributions from other schools and departments, including Archaeology, Engineering and Medicine.

Two-day conference

19^th-20^th March (Monday and Tuesday) Dawson Lecture Theatre D 110

 A 2 day conference at which departments will present papers suitable for publication stating the contribution their discipline can make to the study of exaptation. Invited speakers will respond with their own assessment of the current state and future prospects for the inter-disciplinary study of exaptation. Departmental papers will be circulated in advance to visiting speakers. Visitors who have confirmed attendance include Prof. Mike O’Brien (University of Missouri), Prof. Paolo Saviotti (Université Pierre Mendès-France, Grenoble), and Prof. Alex Bentley (Bristol University).

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Exaptation, Uncertainty and Technological Change

Exaptation, a concept that can be defined as “characters, evolved for other usages (or for no function at all), and later “coopted” for their current role…” (Gould and Vrba 1982), is one of the most important yet little studied mechanisms in the evolution of species, ecosystems and technologies. Exaptation arises from the indefinite, but rarely explicit, range of potential functions of existing objects/ideas (D’Arcy Thompson, 1942). Feathers, for example, were probably selected for thermal insulation and their use in flight was therefore an exaptation. Microwave ovens certainly originated as radar magnetrons. Principles of social organisation such as producer co-operatives have been applied to numerous resources beyond those for which they were first devised.

While the parallels and differences between genetic and cultural evolution have been debated since the start of the 20th century, rigorous analysis only began in the 1970s. Over the past thirty years techniques have been increasingly refined in archaeology, evolutionary psychology and economics but, as yet, they have not been applied to the phenomenon of exaptation. The dynamics of co-evolving technologies, markets and societies are driven by recombinant and exaptive innovation mechanisms. We need to understand how the leap to new function – prior to the adaptational trajectory – can be conceptualized and modelled; the transfer of known techniques and materials to new contexts can effect substantial savings and eliminate risks.

Durham is well-placed to deliver such a programme of research, since an interest in promoting interdisciplinary work in evolutionary processes already exists in Biological Sciences, Anthropology, Archaeology, Education, and the Business School. In particular, the team are keen to explore the following issues: taxonomy, and how terms are used in different subjects; modelling fitness landscapes in the biological and social sciences; comparability of economic/social systems and natural ecosystems; clarifying what qualifies as a genuine exaptation in social organisation; establishing what kind of benefits does cultural exaptation confer, since ‘adaptive’ implies some fitness advantage to the user. The entity must survive and reproduce/be transmitted. What is required to achieve this (in biology: mating, offspring, survival?). What variables affect cultural ‘fitness’?

The project team will address these issues with the support of two IAS Fellows: the economist, Professor Pier Paolo Saviotti and the anthropologist, Professor Michael J O’Brien. The IAS is also supporting a programme of weekly inter-departmental seminars and a conference, which will culminate in the publication of an edited volume.

Outcomes

1. Definite: an edited volume on exaptation, to be submitted to Cambridge University Press or Routledge.

2. Probable: interdisciplinary research grant applications.

The seminar and the conference are open to students and academics, but to register and request further information, please contact Professor Bob Layton (r.h.layton@durham.ac.uk).

This programme is organised in association with the IAS and the University’s Centre for the Co-evolution of Biology and Culture (CCBC)

Herding, innovations and tipping points in financial systems

CCBC is co-sponsoring this workshop as part of the Leverhulme Tipping Points grant.  

15 July 2011, 08:45 to 17:45, Lindisfarne Suite, St Aidan's College, Durham University. Contact: Alex Bentley

• Tipping Points Event Details