TY - BOOK ID - 267249 TI - The theory of cultural and social selection PY - 2009 SN - 9780521199513 9780521136143 0521199514 0521136148 9780511819889 9780511690945 0511690940 0511819889 0511849400 1107188768 1282653180 9786612653186 0511689462 0511692064 0511690207 0511688717 9780511849404 9781107188761 9781282653184 6612653183 9780511689468 9780511692062 9780511690204 9780511688713 PB - Cambridge, UK New York Cambridge University Press DB - UniCat KW - Sociology KW - Evolution. Phylogeny KW - Natural selection. KW - Social evolution. KW - Sociology. KW - Darwin, Charles, KW - #SBIB:316.21H42 KW - Theoretische sociologie: sociobiologie KW - Natural selection KW - Social evolution KW - Social theory KW - Social sciences KW - Cultural evolution KW - Cultural transformation KW - Culture, Evolution of KW - Culture KW - Evolution KW - Social change KW - Darwinism KW - Selection, Natural KW - Genetics KW - Variation (Biology) KW - Biological invasions KW - Evolution (Biology) KW - Heredity KW - Darwin, Charles, Robert KW - Darwin, Charles KW - Social Sciences UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:267249 AB - "In The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection, W. G. Runciman presents an original and wide-ranging account of the fundamental process by which human cultures and societies come to be of the different kinds that they are. Drawing on and extending recent advances in neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, Runciman argues that collective human behaviour should be analyzed as the acting-out of information transmitted at the three separate but interacting levels of heritable variation and competitive selection - the biological, the cultural, and the social. The implications which this carries for a reformulation of the traditional agenda of comparative and historical sociology are explored with the help of selected examples, and located within the context of current debates about sociological theory and practice. The Theory of Cultural and Social Selection is a succinct and highly imaginative contribution to one of the great intellectual debates of our times, from one of the world's leading social theorists"--Provided by publisher. ER -