EUROCORES_TECT: Sustaining eco-economic norms for a sustainable environment

This project will combine perspectives from ecological and evolutionary theory, from economics and the theory of games, from the mathematics of dynamical systems to the theory of complex adaptive systems to provide new insights on the achievement of cooperation in addressing problems of the Global Commons. Central to the CRP will be the Tragedy of the Commons, in which individual benefit and group interest are in opposition. We will draw on recent theoretical work, especially of the Austrian group, on the evolution of cooperation and punishment; theoretical and experimental work, especially of the Austrian and US groups, on the economics of punishment and the maintenances of social norms; and the expertise of the Dutch and US groups on achieving cooperative agreements in international negotiations. Of special interest will be the interplay between cooperation at one level of organization, and competition at higher levels. In particular, how can we achieve cooperation without that competition, and where the acknowledged common enemy is simply the degradation of our environment? We will draw heavily on field work on cooperation and leadership in vertebrate groups; experimental work on the role of punishment in sustaining norms; theoretical work in game theory; and the mathematical modeling of the dynamics of complex adaptive systems. Central to the success of the project will be the integration of the diverse perspectives of animal behaviorists and evolutionary biologists with theoretical and empirical economists.