The Origins of Unfairness: Social Categories and Cultural Evolution

The Origins of Unfairness

Social Categories and Cultural Evolution
 
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Date of Publication:
 
Normal price:

Publisher's listprice:
GBP 31.99
Estimated price in HUF:
15 451 HUF (14 715 HUF + 5% VAT)
Why estimated?
 
Your price:

13 906 (13 244 HUF + 5% VAT )
discount is: 10% (approx 1 545 HUF off)
The discount is only available for 'Alert of Favourite Topics' newsletter recipients.
Click here to subscribe.
 
Availability:

 
  Piece(s)

 
 
 
 
Product details:

ISBN13:9780198789970
ISBN10:0198789971
Binding:Hardback
No. of pages:256 pages
Size:221x140x22 mm
Weight:428 g
Language:English
218
Category:
Long description:
In almost every human society some people get more and others get less. Why is inequity the rule in these societies? In The Origins of Unfairness, philosopher Cailin O'Connor firstly considers how groups are divided into social categories, like gender, race, and religion, to address this question. She uses the formal frameworks of game theory and evolutionary game theory to explore the cultural evolution of the conventions which piggyback on these seemingly
irrelevant social categories. These frameworks elucidate a variety of topics from the innateness of gender differences, to collaboration in academia, to household bargaining, to minority disadvantage, to homophily. They help to show how inequity can emerge from simple processes of cultural change in groups
with gender and racial categories, and under a wide array of situations. The process of learning conventions of coordination and resource division is such that some groups will tend to get more and others less. O'Connor offers solutions to such problems of coordination and resource division and also shows why we need to think of inequity as part of an ever evolving process. Surprisingly minimal conditions are needed to robustly produce phenomena related to inequity and, once inequity emerges
in these models, it takes very little for it to persist indefinitely. Thus, those concerned with social justice must remain vigilant against the dynamic forces that push towards inequity.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part I: The Evolution of Inequity Through Social Coordination
Gender, Coordination Problems, and Coordination Games
Social Categories, Coordination, and Inequity
Cultural Evolution with Social Categories
The Evolution of Gender
Part II: The Evolution of Inequity Through Division of Resources
Power and the Evolution of Inequity
The Cultural Red Queen and the Cultural Red King
Discrimination and Homophily
The Evolution of Household Bargaining
Evolution and Revolution
Conclusion