Waring, Tim

Waring, Tim
Organization(s): 
University of Maine

I study human culture and cooperation, especially in relation to the environment. I study the evolution of culture to better understand how norms, traditions, and societies evolve, and how they are influenced by ecological forces in order to learn how to better build durable, sustainable and just institutions. Ultimately, cultural forces create the identities and patterns of meaning which control trust and cooperation between people and groups, putting culture at the heart of economic and ecological outcomes. I hypothesize that cooperation is a central feature of sustainable and durable human-ecological systems. On a broader level, I am fascinated by the fundamental differences between biological and cultural evolution, and the resulting implications for the interaction of the two systems.

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