The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time [Hardcover]

David Sloan Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0316037672 | ISBN-13: 978-0316037679 | Edition: 1

After decades studying creatures great and small, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson had an epiphany: Darwin's theory won't fully prove itself until it improves the quality of human life in a practical sense. And what better place to begin than his hometown of Binghamton, New York? Making a difference in his own city would provide a model for cities everywhere, which have become the habitat for over half of the people on earth.

Inspired to become an agent of change, Wilson descended on Binghamton with a scientist's eye and looked at its toughest questions, such as how to empower neighborhoods and how best to teach our children. He combined the latest research methods from experimental economics with studies of holiday decorations and garage sales. Drawing upon examples from nature as diverse as water striders, wasps, and crows, Wilson's scientific odyssey took him around the world, from a cave in southern Africa that preserved the dawn of human culture to the Vatican in Rome. Along the way, he spoke with dozens of fellow scientists, whose stories he relates along with his own.

Wilson's remarkable findings help us to understand how we must become wise managers of evolutionary processes to accomplish positive change at all scales, from effective therapies for individuals, to empowering neighborhoods, to regulating the worldwide economy.

With an ambitious scope that spans biology, sociology, religion, and economics, The Neighborhood Project is a memoir, a practical handbook for improving the quality of life, and an exploration of the big questions long pondered by religious sages, philosophers, and storytellers. Approaching the same questions from an evolutionary perspective shows, as never before, how places define us.

Editorial Reviews

Review

WINNER OF THE 2012 BOOKS FOR A BETTER LIFE GREEN AWARD

"Imagine combining a moving autobiography, dozens of moving mini-biographies, accidental and intentional experiments in raising and educating children and planning cities, and explanations of what biology and religion are really about. Out of that mix comes this unique, beautifully written, wide-ranging book that will delight a universe of readers." (Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA, and Pulitzer-prize-winning author of books including Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse )

"The Neighborhood Project, an organization Wilson founded to rejuvenate his hometown of Binghamton, NY...uses evolutionary theories to analyze behavioral data and improve quality of life...pleasurable...provide[s]...evidence for how lives, like ideas, intersect in fascinating ways." (Publisher's Weekly )

"An evolutionary biologist applies his science to making the city of Binghamton, NY a better place to live, and in the telling, illuminates evolution and spells out his efforts to increase understanding of it....The side trips are...pleasurable, informative, and worthwhile." (Booklist )

"The city reflects the nature of the human species in the same way that the hive reflects the nature of bees. In his usual engaging style, David Sloan Wilson uses the prism of evolution to explain our role in and control over these larger organisms of our own making." (Frans de Waal, author of Our Inner Ape and The Age of Empathy )

"Once again David Sloan Wilson reminds us that wherever we look, whether deep in a forest, in our backyards, or in urban classrooms, evolutionary processes -- biological, psychological, or cultural-are at work and understanding these processes can not only deepen our sense of place but also improve the way we lead our lives." (Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, author of Mother Nature and Mothers and Others: The evolutionary origins of mutual understanding )

"Just as Charles Darwin had his finches and Jane Goodall her chimps, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson has his city as a subject of study in what has to be one of the most unique projects ever undertaken in the history of science. Through the lens of evolutionary theory we see not just Wilson's city of Binghamton, New York in a new light, we view all of humanity and civilization from a perspective unique in the annals of research, and written in an engaging style that carries the reader from one chapter to the next. A compelling read. An important book." (Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University, and the author of Why Darwin Matters and The Mind of the Market )

About the Author

David Sloan Wilson is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is widely known for his fundamental contributions to evolutionary science and for explaining evolution to the general public. His books include Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society, and Unto Others: The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (with Elliott Sober). In addition to his own research, Wilson manages programs that expand the scope of evolutionary science in higher education, public policy, community-based research, and the study of religion.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (August 24, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316037672
• ISBN-13: 978-0316037679
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #71,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Science & Math > Environment > Environmentalism
  • #33 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Urban Planning & Development
  • #33 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > City Planning & Urban Development

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tangled Bank, Hammer Blows of Natural Selection and Binghamton, NY September 30, 2011

By darwinst

Format:Hardcover

David Sloan Wilson's has given us a terrific - and monumentally ambitious - new book The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City One Block at a Time. Wilson, a Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at the State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University) is suggesting that by reading the directions of our species, written in the language of evolution, we can create not just a better city (his city being Binghamton, NY) but in fact a better world.

Wilson is best known in the academic community for reviving the concept of "group selection." But as of late Wilson's efforts have been to expand the tendrils of evolutionary theory into the role it can play in everyday life. His most recent book prior to The Neighborhood Project was modestly titled Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think about Our Lives. Perhaps this recent offering could have been titled "Evolution for Everything" since myriad and seemingly disparate topics such as economics, early childhood education, and city planning are all skillfully brought under the umbrella of evolutionary theory. In fact he states that his goal is nothing less than to illustrate how using an evolutionary paradigm can "make the world a better place." For Wilson the group (tribe, community, neighborhood, city, nation, etc.) is in fact an organism in itself, the adaptive unit, and thus can be viewed as a product of natural selection. And that until we re-establish our ancestral human social environment our group will never feel at home.

He cogently argues throughout that we can use evolution to both understand and improve the human condition. That evolutionary science can and will (if he has his way) deliver practical answers to the problems of everyday life. "Evolutionary science will eventually prove so useful on a daily basis that we will wonder how we survived without it," says Wilson, and "one thing's for sure: our future is bleak if we don't turn our groups into organisms." Strong words from a passionate advocate. But would you expect less from a man who calls himself a plumber who is offering to fix our collective clogged drains with his evolutionary tool kit.

Wilson skillfully steers a course between genetic determinism and social constructivism by illustrating with numerous relevant examples that the true answer lies when both nature and nurture are used to best understand the human condition. Social constructivists have their heart in the right place, says Wilson, but often arrive at the construction site without the necessary evolutionary toolbox.

Part memoir, part biography, part history of science, and part scientific methodology the text is written in a relaxed conversational style that makes it accessible to both scientist and non-scientist alike.

There is little doubt that like Darwin's tangled bank analogy, used throughout the book, The Neighborhood Project does seem to meander from topic to topic and the reader may initially wonder how the social behavior of wasps and the solitary behavior of water striders as well as the philosophy of the great French paleontologist (and Jesuit priest) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin will all shed light on how we can make a better city and a better planet. And there are those who may feel that the book is, at times, too anecdotal. But for those who stick with it they will be greatly rewarded throughout.

So, who should read this book? The answer is simple. I would argue that anyone who has an interest in the future of our species - and wishes to experience a unique perspective on how we may solve the myriad problems we all now face - will be engaged, informed, and pleased.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant synthesis August 28, 2011

By Rebecca Moldover

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Dr.Wilson has done many things well, but nowhere is this better demonstrated than in "The Neighborhood Project...". Dr. Wilson writes science the way a master novelist writes fiction.. a telling eye for detail and narrative, a wonderful sense of humor , and the ability to bring enormous clarity to complex subjects ..To use his own metaphor, what can seem "a tangled bank" becomes a fascinating journey through moving memoir,fascinating scientific biography,and,most of all,an exploration of the many ways evolutionary theory can both shine a light on nature and be practically applied in our own lives...from creating better parks in our cities..and why that is important.. to creating an economic system( Evonomics) that actually works for all of us....a chapter that should be required reading for economists and politicians..as well as for those of us who wonder "where it all went wrong". Dr. Wilson's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious, his writing is as enthralling as the most skilled of novelists, and the range and skill of his scientific thought,seen through the lens of evolutionary theory, reveals the world in a new way... This book brims with ideas and images that will not only stay with you, but change the way you look at life...

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant stories of complex systems and how science happens, told through the lens of evolution February 12, 2012

By Lynn E O'Connor

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I skim many books and read very few. David Sloan Wilson's recent book, "The Neighborhood Project," is one that I read. And I didn't just read it. I purchased a second copy, just for my kindle reader, and gave it to friends and colleagues for Christmas because I knew they would read it, and I knew we'd have hours of conversation about it. We're in San Francisco and Berkeley, hotbeds of social activism, or so it is claimed. To have a book that examines contemporary society and spells out the need for change by using evolutionary theory is quite remarkable. To link the social systems of wasps, the immune system, attributes of neighborhoods, the culture of crows, and the larger economic system -to name a few-- is brilliant. In his many "parables" (the topics he covers) he is teaching us to think about systems, rules by which they operate across specific examples, the self-organization of complex adaptive systems, and the absolute significance of context in which they are embedded. He is teaching painlessly, by way of presenting numerous examples of this broad message, by telling stories.

The story of Wilson's research in Binghamton New York is an awesome piece of social science, seen through the lens of evolution. It's inspiring. It made me want to study San Francisco, using similar methods. I'm a social and clinical evolutionary psychologist and throughout my "fields" there is almost always the absence of the perspective of the ultimate purpose of individual, group, city and national behavior. The ultimate purpose -the evolutionary purpose--is what allows Wilson to ask: "Why?" That said, he doesn't always ask "why" enough, as he is looking for how to do things better, in line with our wired-in and cultural characteristics "hammered" into shape by evolution (I love the way he writes that). In some cases, for example education, he points to the possibility of a better system, one that takes into account how we learn, how we are wired to learn, how hunter gatherer children (and adults) learn, but he doesn't answer the question "Why do we have such a terrible system of education?" other than to point out the context. We have often fallen into dysfunctional patterns because the environment in which we operate is so different from that of our earlier evolution. Nevertheless, I think we need to know a great deal more about the "why" if we are to change our contemporary systems (of education, of government, of neighborhood organization, of health care -the list could go on). I want to badger Wilson with the "why" questions.

While some reviewers are saying they found the book scattered, and they objected to the personal stories about scientists and how they came to do the work they do, this may be one of the several unique qualities that I loved most about "The Neighborhood Project." "Science" is too isolated in our culture, perhaps too rarified -to the point that some of our presidential candidates make sure everyone knows that they are "anti-science." Wilson teaches using the method often cited as "the best" by education researchers, he teaches us through stories. When science is put forth without these stories of why and how research really happens, it loses impact for most students. Wilson dissects both the findings and the doing of science, he makes it human and social which of course it is. The parables each have a place in the overall story he's telling. He's writing about complex adaptive systems, complexity science, emergence and evolution. He is offering us an easy lesson in the hierarchical levels of evolutionary adaptation. He's writing about Gaia, a planetary ecosystem, where everything is connected and following principles of evolution. It is fabulous to read about the complexities of the immune system, the social life of wasps, the human-like behavior and culture of crows -it brings to us a new and exciting view of human ethology, our behavior in our natural habitat that may no longer be a natural enough habitat for optimal functioning, and how to change it by altering the context. The Neighborhood Project teaches evolution through stories, through Wilson's own research story and those of his colleagues, stories that I, personally, can't ever get enough of.

The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time