Order and anarchy : civil society, social disorder and war / Robert Layton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Layton, Robert, 1944- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social stability.

Violence.

Social evolution.

Civil society.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 197 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Order & Anarchy

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Through the study of civil society, the evolution of social relations, and the breakdown of social order, Order and Anarchy re-examines the role of violence in human social evolution. Drawing on anthropology, political science, and evolutionary theory, it offers a novel approach to understanding stability and instability in human society. Robert Layton provides a radical critique of current concepts of civil society, arguing that rational action is characteristic of all human societies and not unique to post-Enlightenment Europe. Case studies range from ephemeral African gold rush communities and the night club scene in Britain to stable hunter-gatherer and peasant cultures. The dynamics of recent civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, Chad, Somalia and Indonesia are compared to war in small-scale tribal societies, arguing that recent claims for the evolutionary value of violence have misunderstood the complexity of human strategies and the social environments in which they are played out.

Contents:

Civil society and social cohesion

Self interest and social evolution

The breakdown of social order

Warfare, biology and culture.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 174-192) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-16687-X

1-280-45858-5

0-511-19160-X

0-511-19074-3

0-511-19192-8

0-511-31632-1

0-511-61726-7

0-511-19106-5

OCLC:

171138656