Does the deep past live with us, encoded in the structure of our institutions?

Yes you should read ‘Scale’. No, don’t believe everything it says.

I explore how sociality underpins the evolution of big life.

My talk given to the University of Texas Energy Symposium.

This is the second in a series of two essays written for and supported by the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society. These essays investigate the role that hierarchy plays in driving inequality and unsustainability. Summary Humanity’s most pressing need is to learn how to live within our planet’s boundaries — something that likely means doing without economic growth.

This is the first of two essays written for (and supported by) the Seoul Platform for Initiating Discourses on an Equitable and Resilient Society. These essays investigate the role that hierarchy plays in driving inequality and unsustainability. This piece introduces the facts of hierarchy.

People tend to become more individualistic at the same time that hierarchy grows. What explains this paradox?

A talk about how and why institutions grow with energy use.

I show how hierarchy grows with economic development — something that neoclassical economics says shouldn’t happen.

Politics determine government size, right? Yes and no. I show here that there’s more to government size than just politics.