The Resilient World

URL:  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1416434884618

In an earlier post, I wrote about the possibility that cooperation emerges not out of altruism but out of the need to impose sanctions in an increasingly complex society.

I've been working on a few problems in Africa linked to failed or nonexistent institutions. Ann Swidler, of UC Berkeley, recently spoke at Harvard on the hard questions in social sciences. She drives to the heart of the problem. How, she asks, do societies create or restore institutions? "The inability to have effective institutions" she says, "is one of the greatest curses under which people live." What creates robust, effective, resilient institutions? Being culturally rooted really matters, she argues. Effective institutions are culturally embedded. Where there is a rich cultural background, people know how to operate within it; "the informal habits that go with them culturally are present." Cultural embedding creates "a narrative that aligns your own moral incentives with the institution in such a way that defection is less visible and cooperation is more visible. it also creates ... ritual moments where the status of those who contribute to the collectivity is symbolically recognized and status is reinforced... You use ritual moments to rehearse who your allies are, who's closest to you, who's done the most for the community, and who is likely to do the most. It reinforces bonds."

Biologists and ecologists are no more talented than is the US Army at institution building. Designing protected areas and conservation programs according to accepted conservation practice sounds good on paper, but science has a tin ear for music of cooperation. Different approaches are required. I'm working on a paper now with Kirk Talbott on the cooperative mechanisms behind the emergence of the Bonobo Peace Forest in war-torn DRC. If successful this program will sustainably manage an area the size of Great Britain using customary tenure establish domain boundaries. Established conservation practice would entail excising the high value conservation lands from customary tenure and placing it under a unified external authority - not a recipe for long-term success. Ecologists and biologists are trying hard to understand how to build institutions to protect biodiversity. The challenge is combining different rule sets. I think we can learn a lot from Ann Swidler.

Tip of the hat to Howard Silverman at People and Place for posting on Swidler and her talk (http://www.peopleandplace.net/on_the_wire/2011/2/14/ann_swidler_creating_and_restoring_institutions)