In his article "Conservative Evolution, Sustainability, and Culture" Gábor Náray-Szabó argues that evolution is conservative in the sense that throughout the history of the universe old constructs like elementary particles, amino acids, and living cells remained conserved while the world evolved/evolves in complexity. A similar process can be observed in cultural evolution as components of soci...

Political Institutions and Regimes since 1600: A New Historical Data Set Do national political institutions matter for social developments and changes? If so, how, where, and when do the critical conditions occur, and how long is the causal time lag? What are the patterns of interaction between political regime types and institutional changes from one country to another? These are some of the q...

The past inflexibility of international banks in granting concessions (like elimination of surcharges, partial debt cancellations, lower interest rates, etc.) is linked by Ortiz to case-by-case strategy adopted in debt renegotiations. Within this context, the fear of setting precedents is seen as a major explanation in the banks' negotiating stance. To renew political commitment to the improvem...

Development economists have superseded any necessity of using Arrow’s methodological individualism (MI) in focusing on cross-cultural, cross-national, or developmental economics. This study examines whether analysis of cross-cultural economic models might include a concept of economic generosity as a type of economic structuration that deviates from MI principles and is closer to what economist...

The Salmon industry in Norway includes three sectors, namely sea and river fishing for wild salmon, and salmon farming, or aquaculture. The three sectors provide different social, economic and cultural benefits to society, but also facemany problems and challenges. They have different interests, practices, traditions and audiences, and are also administered by different authorities and regulate...

As catastrophic phenomena, landslides often cause large-scale socio-economic destruction including loss of life, economic collapse, and human injury. In addition, landslides can impair the functioning of critical infrastructure and destroy cultural heritage and ecological systems. In order to build a more landslide resistant and resilient society, an original GIS-based decision support system i...

Fisheries experts now recognize that resource conflicts can be diminished and resources better managed when fishers and other resource stakeholders are more involved in management, and access rights are distributed more effectively and equitably. There is an increasing commitment by governments in Southeast Asia to policies and programs of decentralization and community-based management and com...