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Two complementary approaches to a naturalistic theory of culture are, on the one hand, mainstream cultural evolution research, and, on the other, work done under the banners of cultural attraction and the epidemiology of representations. There is much agreement between these two schools of thought, including in particular a commitment to population thinking. Both schools also acknowledge that the propagation of culture is not simply a matter of replication, but rather one of reconstruction. However, the two schools of thought differ on the relative importance of this point. The cultural attraction school believes it to be fundamental to genuinely causal explanations of culture. In contrast, most mainstream cultural evolution thinking abstracts away from it. In this paper I make flesh a simple thought experiment (first proposed by Dan Sperber) that directly contrasts the effects that replication and reconstruction have on cultural items. Results demonstrate, in a simple and graphic way, that (i) normal cultural propagation is not replicative, but reconstructive, and (ii) that these two different modes of propagation afford two qualitatively different explanations of stability. If propagation is replicative, as it is in biology, then stability arises from the fidelity of that replication, and hence an explanation of stability comes from an explanation of how and why this high-fidelity is achieved. If, on the other hand, propagation is reconstructive (as it is in culture), then stability arises from the fact that a subclass of cultural types are easily re-producible, while others are not, and hence an explanation of stability comes from a description of what types are easily re-producible, and an explanation of why they are. I discuss two implications of this result for research at the intersection of evolution, cognition, and culture.
A Case Study from Postcolonial Pakistan
Authors:
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The book charts the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact that it has had on the lives of young people and their communities, education systems, the teaching profession, and the responses by governments, NGOs, and donor organisations in Pakistan. Drawing on theories of postcolonialism, feminism, and neoliberal globalisation, the authors explore the development of Pakistan as a postcolonial nation-state, and examine the legacies of colonialism in education systems and policies, teacher education and development. The Pakistani authors bring extensive knowledge and experience to this case study of the ‘broken promise’ of education for sustainable development. This mix of theoretical insight and practical experience promises to produce significant policy and development impact in post-COVID-19 Pakistan, South Asia more broadly, and in other postcolonial development contexts around the world as it develops a critique of the UN SDGs as a global and more local framework for development.
UPCOMING: Webinar / Launch 10th of May:COVID-19 and the (broken) promise of education for sustainable development: A case study from postcolonial Pakistan.
UPCOMING: Webinar / Launch 10th of May:COVID-19 and the (broken) promise of education for sustainable development: A case study from postcolonial Pakistan.
A Case Study from Postcolonial Pakistan
Authors:
, , , , , and
The book charts the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the impact that it has had on the lives of young people and their communities, education systems, the teaching profession, and the responses by governments, NGOs, and donor organisations in Pakistan. Drawing on theories of postcolonialism, feminism, and neoliberal globalisation, the authors explore the development of Pakistan as a postcolonial nation-state, and examine the legacies of colonialism in education systems and policies, teacher education and development. The Pakistani authors bring extensive knowledge and experience to this case study of the ‘broken promise’ of education for sustainable development. This mix of theoretical insight and practical experience promises to produce significant policy and development impact in post-COVID-19 Pakistan, South Asia more broadly, and in other postcolonial development contexts around the world as it develops a critique of the UN SDGs as a global and more local framework for development.
UPCOMING: Webinar / Launch 10th of May:COVID-19 and the (broken) promise of education for sustainable development: A case study from postcolonial Pakistan.
UPCOMING: Webinar / Launch 10th of May:COVID-19 and the (broken) promise of education for sustainable development: A case study from postcolonial Pakistan.
Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss a place-based action research project with neurodiverse young people, support agencies, governments and businesses in Melbourne’s Outer Northern Suburbs. The aims of the project included developing young people’s capabilities in Co-Design for Diversity and Inclusion, evaluating their progress in a series of capability and capacity-building milestone meetings, and awarding, if appropriate, a community based micro-credential. In identifying and analysing the educational innovation promised by this approach, we discuss how we created and captured shared social, cultural, and economic value for them and their community.