ABSTRACT
Indeed, if you come to think of it, such a conclusion might appear to be obvious. We know that humanity is much more numerous, and also more productive than it was, say 1,000 years ago; and it is also more densely connected than it was then, as well as more fully institutionalized, particularly at the global level. In other words, it is also significantly more “globalized.” It is therefore a seemingly straightforward conjecture that such a condition might well be the result of a process that could be described as evolutionary. But that is easier said than conclusively demonstrated, and it is much less obvious how we might sustain such an argument so that it satisfies all its proponents and detractors, and so that it shows how the search and selection processes were carried out. What has the search been about? What was being selected? These remain the central questions. At this point the inquiry turns out to be more complicated, and becomes important to compare our models with other models of global change. The present collection of studies in this volume is an elaboration on that theme.
