New evolutionary foundations: Theoretical requirements for a science of sustainability

Ecological economics stands in theoretical and ethical opposition to many aspects of neoclassical economic theory. Despite their sound critiques of that theory, ecological economists have not settled on an alternative theory of human behavior. As a potential alternative, Norgaard's socioecological coevolutionary framework remains underspecified in terms of variation, heredity, and selection. I review concepts and insights on human behavior from evolutionary biology and evolutionary social science in order to supply new theoretical tools for ecological economic problems, and help refine the coevolutionary framework. I argue that a synthetic evolutionary theory of human behavior provides a sufficient alternative to the neoclassical perspective, and that cultural evolutionary theory is a necessary prerequisite of a mature economic science, ecological, coevolutionary or otherwise. Finally, I suggest some potential topics that such a mature theory might begin to tackle.