The coevolution of parochial altruism and war

Altruism-benefiting fellow group members at a cost to oneself-and parochialism-hostility toward individuals not of one's own ethnic, racial, or other group-are common human behaviors. The intersection of the two-which we term "parochial altruism"-is puzzling from an evolutionary perspective because altruistic or parochial behavior reduces one's payoffs by comparison to what one would gain by eschewing these behaviors. But parochial altruism could have evolved if parochialism promoted intergroup hostilities and the combination of altruism and parochialism contributed to success in these conflicts. Our game-theoretic analysis and agent-based simulations show that under conditions likely to have been experienced by late Pleistocene and early Holocene humans, neither parochialism nor altruism would have been viable singly, but by promoting group conflict, they could have evolved jointly.     

Religious and sacred imperatives in human conflict

Religion, in promoting outlandish beliefs and costly rituals, increases ingroup trust but also may increase mistrust and conflict with outgroups. Moralizing gods emerged over the last few millennia, enabling large-scale cooperation, and sociopolitical conquest even without war. Whether for cooperation or conflict, sacred values, like devotion to God or a collective cause, signal group identity and operate as moral imperatives that inspire nonrational exertions independent of likely outcomes. In conflict situations, otherwise mundane sociopolitical preferences may become sacred values, acquiring immunity to material incentives. Sacred values sustain intractable conflicts that defy "business-like" negotiation, but also provide surprising opportunities for resolution.     

Ancestral hierarchy and conflict

Ancestral Pan, the shared predecessor of humans, bonobos, and chimpanzees, lived in social dominance hierarchies that created conflict through individual and coalitional competition. This ancestor had male and female mediators, but individuals often reconciled independently. An evolutionary trajectory is traced from this ancestor to extant hunter-gatherers, whose coalitional behavior results in suppressed dominance and competition, except in mate competition. A territorial ancestral Pan would not have engaged in intensive warfare if we consider bonobo behavior, but modern human foragers have the potential for full-scale war. Although hunter-gatherers are able to resolve conflicts preemptively, they also use mechanisms, such as truces and peace pacts, to mitigate conflict when the costs become too high. Today, humans retain the genetic underpinnings of both conflict and conflict management; thus, we retain the potential for both war and peace.     

丘陵山区土地利用冲突评价及调控优化

开展丘陵山区土地利用冲突评价可为土地利用调控优化与空间管控提供理论依据与实践支撑.以重庆市江津区2009年和2016年两期土地利用数据为例,运用景观生态学风险评价方法测算土地利用冲突综合指数,对冲突指数进行空间自相关分析,最后提出相应的土地利用调控优化策略.结果表明:1)土地利用冲突等级数量从多到少依次为稳定可控、一般冲突、中度冲突、重度冲突,冲突等级空间格局呈现"一江一河三区"集中连片的分布规律. 2)江津区不同海拔下的土地利用冲突呈现出规律变化特征,海拔越高,冲突程度越小,冲突地类随冲突程度发生相应变化. 3)江津区土地利用冲突指数全局的正相关性有统计学意义, 2016年热点区与冷点区较2009年都有所增加,集聚态势随着时间推移进一步加强. 4)基于江津区不同海拔下的土地利用冲突等级,提出3种土地调控优化策略,引导土地利用空间协调发展,提高区域可持续发展水平.     

Warriors, levelers, and the role of conflict in human social evolution

The origins of such varied features of contemporary life as the national state and the desire to uphold generous and civic social norms are to be found in a combination of conflict between groups and attenuation of both inequalities and conflicts within groups. In contrast to the adoption of a better tool or a more productive crop, which can be adopted by a single individual, a new institution works only if most people adopt it. This explains why collective action against those benefitting from the status quo at the expense of others, as well as conflict between groups governed by different norms and institutions, figures so prominently in our capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and to harness new knowledge for human benefit.     

Scaling data on inter-nation action

We conclude (i) that the marker-card method is as reliable a measure as the ordinary Q-sort method; (ii) that Q and the marker-card score are measuring very nearly the same thing-in this case, presumably conflict; and (iii) that the use of marker cards permits comparison of judgments about a given quantity in the context of different situations and may even permit comparison of results obtained by different research teams if the different teams use the same marker decks. A fundamental issue involved in scoring the entries on the cards in this study by either Q-sort or marker cards is the "judgability" of the items as indicators of conflict. We noted above that items with the highest variances in scoring, from judge to judge, were concentrated at the low-conflict end of the scale. A possible explanation is that judges are able to make finer distinctions concerning an attribute when it is present than when it is absent. Differences in scoring could also arise from a lack of unidimensionality in the attribute being scaled. If juidges find that conflict has several distinct aspects, the task of placing items in a single order becomes more difficult. Difficulties in making judgments also arose from the fact that the actions were being judged out of context, or in contexts that varied from judge to judge, since no standard context was supplied. But these difficulties lie outside our problem, which was to find an alternative to Q-sorting which would permit intersituational comparisons. Our sLIccess in finding an alternative is apparent in our results, but problems of judgability remain with both techniques. Beyond providing a standard for intersitLiational comparisons, the markercard technique has other advantages. It is possible that the use of marker decks will be of help in training judges to score such a variable as conflict. In our study it permitted identification of a judge inadequately trained to do so. Possibly the marker cards will be useful in assigning scale values to hatches of data too small for Q-sort, or even to individual items. It further appears that the marker cards should be useful in discriminating among highconflict items which heretofore would all have tended to appear in the top Q-sort category. The marker-card technique has given us a reliable alternative to Q-sort for scaling conflict. The method should be capable of extension to dimensions other than conflict.     

Multi-stakeholder initiative governance as assemblage: Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil as a political resource in land conflicts related to oil palm plantations

Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI) claim to make production of commodities more socially and environmentally sustainable by regulating their members and through systems of certification. These claims, however, are highly contested. In this article, I examine how actors use MSI regulation with regard to land conflicts with a focus on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). MSIs are a resource that actors in land conflicts can use to generate evidence that gives them leverage in their negotiations. To do so, actors employ the interrelations between two kinds of land conflict: localized land conflicts between local land users, and disputes between more distant actors over aggregated land-use related to the sustainability of palm oil production. To demonstrate this, I use the notion of assemblage in two case studies from Sumatra, Indonesia. Thinking in terms of assemblage allows the contradictory but interrelated practices that shape MSIs to be understood. In distinct locally embedded processes, actors enact MSIs in contexts of unequal power relations, from which MSI governance emerges. The way in which access to an MSI is distributed among contending actors shapes MSI enactments and thus its governance. The unequal distribution of access to the RSPO results in a governance that favors companies over communities.     

中国体育转型发展中的现实冲突与未来变革

通过文献资料和逻辑分析,剖析了当代体育转型发展特点以及所面临的制度冲突,从而为制度变革提供建议。研究认为：中国当代体育转型在理念中面临“务民生”和“金牌政绩”的冲突;在结构中面临“群众体育突显”和“竞技体育偏重”的冲突;在主体中面临着“多元主体参与”和“单一政府管控”的冲突。而要实现“体育为民”的发展理念,成为体育强国,必须进行制度的变革。首先应该构建以群众体育为基础、竞技体育为动力、体育产业为提升的联动发展格局。其次,形成政府主导、社会参与、市场调节的多元发展主体,强化政府公共服务能力,提升社会组织独立服务能力,增强市场丰富供给能力。     

基于冲突管理理论构建合谐高校图书馆馆读关系

从冲突存在的普遍性和冲突的基本观点入手,分析了冲突是不可避免的,同时对高校图书馆馆员与读者之间的冲突进行了客观的分析,找出解决冲突的主要方法,并针对这些冲突进行有效的管理。     

Research ethics. Studies trace patchwork of conflict policies

For more than a year since the September 1999 death of a teenager in a gene-therapy clinical trial that had industry connections, scientists, ethicists, and government and university officials have been fretting about conflict of interest. But no one could say just how the nation's universities are policing such conflicts. Now, three recently published studies show that requirements for disclosure of outside financial interests vary widely from university to university, as do penalties for violations.     

从西方国际关系理论看“和谐世界”构建

“和谐世界”得以构建的前提和基础,是主体和谐利益观的形成。“和谐世界”主张以和谐秩序超越现实主义权力冲突状态,以民主、平等、包容性和普适性的行为体互动关系来规范、超越新自由主义强权依附型的国际机制思想,以理性、唯物的国际政治观超越理想主义和建构主义。我们对“和谐世界”的理解,不能仅仅停留在外交政策或文化层面上。应深入挖掘其理论内涵,构建和完善与之相适应的逻辑体系,使之与国际相关理论尤其是西方理论相接轨,并自然融入到国际政治理论体系中,从而拓展民族性理论的世界影响力。     

从西方国际关系理论看“和谐世界”构建

"和谐世界"得以构建的前提和基础,是主体和谐利益观的形成。"和谐世界"主张以和谐秩序超越现实主义权力冲突状态,以民主、平等、包容性和普适性的行为体互动关系来规范、超越新自由主义强权依附型的国际机制思想,以理性、唯物的国际政治观超越理想主义和建构主义。我们对"和谐世界"的理解,不能仅仅停留在外交政策或文化层面上。应深入挖掘其理论内涵,构建和完善与之相适应的逻辑体系,使之与国际相关理论尤其是西方理论相接轨,并自然融入到国际政治理论体系中,从而拓展民族性理论的世界影响力。     

Conservation conflicts across Africa

There is increasing evidence that areas of outstanding conservation importance may coincide with dense human settlement or impact. We tested the generality of these findings using 1 degree-resolution data for sub-Saharan Africa. We find that human population density is positively correlated with species richness of birds, mammals, snakes, and amphibians. This association holds for widespread, narrowly endemic, and threatened species and looks set to persist in the face of foreseeable population growth. Our results contradict earlier expectations of low conflict based on the idea that species richness decreases and human impact increases with primary productivity. We find that across Africa, both variables instead exhibit unimodal relationships with productivity. Modifying priority-setting to take account of human density shows that, at this scale, conflicts between conservation and development are not easily avoided, because many densely inhabited grid cells contain species found nowhere else.     

Fermi Prize: J. Robert Oppenheimer Named to Receive Annual AEC Award

The White House announced last week that J. Robert Oppenheimer would be the recipient of the Atomic Energy Commission's 1963 Fermi prize. The prize, which is accompanied by a $50,000 award, is given for "especially meritorious contribution to the development, use or control of atomic energy," and, as such, is strictly a recognition of scientific merit. This fact cannot be overstated. Nevertheless, because of the bitter and emotional controversy that surrounded the removal of Oppenheimer's security clearance in 1954, the Oppenheimer case has come to symbolize the dark hour to which nonconformity and scientific integrity were subjected in the McCarthy era. Oppenheimer's selection for the award is thus widely regarded as an effort by the scientific community and the Kennedy administration to right a long-standing wrong. The following account is an appreciation of Oppenheimer, written especially for Science by his colleague, Hans Bethe, of Cornell University.     

Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) in Mexico: a theoretic ideal or everyday practice?

Third-party certification (TPC), the most common organic certification system, has faced growing criticism in recent years. This has led to the development of alternative certification systems, most of which can be classed as Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). PGS have been promoted as a more suitable, cheaper and less bureaucratic alternative to TPC for local markets and are associated with additional benefits such as empowering smallholder farmers, facilitating farmer-to-farmer learning and enhancing food security and sovereignty. PGS have spread rapidly in the past few years, but studies suggest that they are facing numerous challenges that, if not addressed, may jeopardise these benefits. Using the example of three Mexican PGS initiatives, this paper explores the main challenges faced by PGS, specifically those predominantly found in producer-run PGS initiatives. Based on producer and consumer surveys, semi-structured and informal interviews, and participant and non-participant observation, the key challenges that emerged were continuous implementation of the certification process, time constraints, personal conflicts and conflict avoidance. The paper further argues that the requirements for PGS recognition under the Mexican Law for Organic Products may also threaten the continued existence of PGS and suggests that mechanisms for managing conflicts, incentivising PGS participation and mitigating opportunity costs are key if PGS are to continue to develop.     

基于冲突分析的工程车路面除雪装置创新研究

针对目前国内路面除雪装置性能不足的问题,提出将TRIZ理论运用到除雪装置的进化研究中来解决除雪装置开发设计中存在的冲突.分析了目前国内路面除雪装置存在的问题,找到制约除雪装置进化的内在冲突,并运用TRIZ理论中的通用技术特性参数进行描述根据冲突的特点,将路面除雪装置存在的冲突分为技术冲突和物理冲突分别利用冲突矩阵和分离原理对这些冲突进行求解,从而找到解决这些冲突的发明原理利用找到的发明原理和结合作者的工程经验,得到一种新型除雪装置的进化方案.分析结果表明,该新型路面除雪装置的进化方案在避障性能、除雪速度和适应性方面都有较大提高.     

论康熙治国与清初文化软实力

康熙在清初这个民族冲突、社会失序的特殊时代,从儒家文化的传统中汲取资源,进行了以程朱理学为中心、以佛道思想为支撑的文化软实力构建,将道统、学统、治统、法统联为一体,并通过书籍编刻、书院建设等手段,推动了中华民族形成前期满、汉等各民族的国家认同感,展示了基于传统文化的软实力所产生的巨大凝聚力。     

The Structure of Ordinary Water: New data and interpretations are yielding new insights into this fascinating substance

The train of thought pursued in this article has led to the conclusion that the structure of cold water seems likely to consist, for the most part, of hydrogen-bonded, four-coordinated, framework regions, with interstitial monomers occupying some fraction of the cavities the framework encloses. The precise geometry of the framework has not been specified, but some evidence suggests that it is rather regular at low temperatures and becomes more random as the water gets warmer. These conclusions, meager as they are in comparison with what we shall eventually need to know about water, are still "subject to change without notice." Such a change would, for instance, be made necessary by the discrediting either of the data or of the interpretations on which the model is based. The discovery of new facts, or of new meanings in old facts, which were clearly in conflict with the model, would also make it necessary to modify, if not to abandon, it. Even this would be progress, however, for it would be another product of the method of drawing upon data from diverse sources and would be a further step toward the progressively more comprehensive model to which this method will lead and the progressively greater confidence we will be able to place in our conclusions.     

Platforms for collective action in multiple-use common-pool resources

Collective action processes in complex, multiple-use common-pool resources (CPRs) have only recently become a focus of study. When CPRs evolve into more complex systems, resource use by separate user groups becomes increasingly interdependent. This implies, amongst others, that the institutional framework governing resource use has to be re-negotiated to avoid adverse impacts associated with the increased access of any new stakeholders, such as overexploitation, alienation of traditional users, and inter-user conflicts. The establishment of platforms for resource use negotiation is a way of dealing with complex natural resource management problems. Platforms arise when stakeholders perceive the same resource management problem, realize their interdependence in solving it, and come together to agree on action strategies for solving the problem (Röling, 1994). This article sets the scene for a discussion in this Special Issue about the potential of nested platforms for resource use negotiation in facilitating collective action in the management of complex, multiple-use CPRs. The article has five objectives. First, we define collective action in the context of this paper. Second, we discuss the importance of collective action in multiple-use CPRs. Third, we introduce the concept of platforms to coordinate collective action by multiple users. Fourth, we address some issues that emerge from evidence in the field regarding the role and potential of nested platforms for managing complex CPRs. Finally, we raise five discussion statements. These will form the basis for the collection of articles in this special issue.