Seminar Biological and social adaptation Are systems able to refrain from self destructive growth

Systems must grow or go under - this is the popular conviction, often in reference to biological narratives. Indeed bacteria within a test tube increase their number until the nutritional medium is consumed or polluted by excretions. But higher species are able to refrain from blind proliferation - according to life history theory, under stable environmental conditions they invest instead in the vigor of its offspring, not its number. Quite similarly, not all social organizations expand always and infinitely - they too may choose to invest into quality instead of quantity. The European state since its inception was built on capitalistic growth, but older state systems, as e.g. in China, were able to survive without incessant strife for expansion. Of course, expansion is often a good instrument to pacify internal conflict, but it may provoke external clash. Under volatile conditions growth may be an escape, whereas in stable environments, risk aversion often proofs as the better long-term strategy. In the course we will screen the literature in quite different fields in the search for empirically existing -degrowth- moments: Risk aversion in financial regulation and investment strategies, downsizing of organizations, reproductive behavior in biology, demographic processes of human populations, various forms of division of labor. Nettle, Daniel (2010): Dying young and living fast: variation in life history across English neighborhoods, Behavioral Ecology (2010) 21 (2): 387-395. Bemerkung Anwesenheitspflicht in der 1. Veranstaltungsstunde! Sollten Sie aus triftigen Gründen nicht teilnehmen können, so informieren Sie den/die Dozenten/Dozentin rechtzeitig. Unentschuldigtes Fehlen in der 1. Veranstaltungsstunde bedeutet automatisch den Verlust des Kursplatzes. Leistungsnachweis Depending on your track (6 or 9 credits) tasks will be combined: Reading the main texts, writing a term paper, taking the role of a preferred discussion partner for two meetings, writing summaries of the literature. Writing in English is encouraged. Anmeldung Die Anmeldung der Veranstaltung ist ausschließlich über LSF möglich! Belegungsfrist für diese Veranstaltung ist • für Erstsemesterstudierende vom 29.09 bis 01.10. 2014 • für Studierende höherer Semester vom 04.09. bis 10.09. Bitte beachten Sie unbedingt die Hinweise zur Belegung, die Sie rechtzeitig auf der Website des Instituts für Soziologie unter dem folgenden Link finden: http://www.soziologie.uni-muenchen.de/studium/lehre/kursanmeldungen/index.html Department Institut für Soziologie Depending on your track (6 or 9 credits) tasks will be combined: Reading the main texts, writing a term paper, taking the role of a preferred discussion partner for two meetings, writing summaries of the literature. Writing in English is encouraged. LMU München WiSe 1415 apl.Prof.Dr. Gill Bernhard