Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences最新文献_第4页

Inefficiencies in the division of labour in human societies.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0278

Claudia Diehl, Peter Preisendörfer

{"title":"Inefficiencies in the division of labour in human societies.","authors":"Claudia Diehl, Peter Preisendörfer","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0278","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0278","url":null,"abstract":"The article reviews the long-standing debate on the division of labour in human societies from a sociological perspective. The division of labour is analysed as a secular trend towards increasing specialization on the one hand and as prevailing arrangements of specialization on the other. The dominant view in economics and other social sciences is that division of labour exists in human societies because it is efficient. We cast doubt on this view by discussing objections to the efficiency paradigm. We show that efficiency considerations, while important, are ultimately insufficient to explain both increasing specialization over time and prevailing arrangements of specialization in real life. As a broader framework, we briefly outline an explanatory triad of efficiency, norms and power. Social norms and power relations often complement unclear and ambiguous efficiency and performance criteria, but they can also conflict with principles of efficiency and rationality.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230278"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923609/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Mutualism and division of labour: a mutual expansion of concepts.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0266

Jennifer H Fewell, Judith L Bronstein

{"title":"Mutualism and division of labour: a mutual expansion of concepts.","authors":"Jennifer H Fewell, Judith L Bronstein","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0266","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0266","url":null,"abstract":"Division of labour within social groups and the interspecific relationships within mutualisms have traditionally been treated as separate research areas. In this opinion, we align terminologies and concepts between the two fields, by comparing within-group division of labour to the outsourcing of functions in mutualisms. Division of labour and interspecific outsourcing share fundamental similarities. Both are built from specialization of some individuals within the relationship on tasks or functions required for survival, growth and reproduction. Both also generate variable fitness outcomes. A key difference is that mutualisms generally generate direct fitness gain, while benefits from cooperative sociality often accrue from a mix of direct and indirect fitness. Additionally, the levels of physical and physiological specialization within many mutualisms expand far beyond the levels of differentiation seen in cooperative social groups, with the exception of reproductive division of labour. The consideration of between-species outsourcing in the context of division of labour allows expansion of our understanding of both fields and beyond, to consider general principles as drivers of division of labour, and role differences more broadly across levels of complexity.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230266"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923613/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664158","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

What relevance has division of labour in a world of precarious work?

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0279

Deborah James

引用次数: 0

Specialism and generalism in social animals in variable environments.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0264

Koichi Ito, Andrew Higginson

{"title":"Specialism and generalism in social animals in variable environments.","authors":"Koichi Ito, Andrew Higginson","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0264","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0264","url":null,"abstract":"An important advantage to sociality is division of labour, which is often associated with specialization of group members, such as the polymorphic subcastes of ant workers. Given this advantage, it is puzzling that many social groups do not show clear specialization. Among ants, workers of closely related species have one, two or even three polymorphisms. The degree of specialism of asocial animals depends on environmental variability because specialists will perform poorly in some conditions. Here, we use a numeric model to consider whether the magnitude and type of environmental variability can help to explain the diversity of specialism in cooperative groups. By finding the optimal distribution of group members along a single dimension of specialization for two tasks, we predict when groups should be composed of specialists, generalists, both of these (trimodal) or moderate specialists. Generalism is predicted more when environments are unstable and when task importance-rather than demand-varies but depends on the likelihood that the group can complete all tasks in the range of experienced conditions. The benefit of sociality is strongest in invariable environments and there is selection for redundancy in the workforce, which may explain the widely observed inactivity in social insects.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230264"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923619/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The evolution of division of labour: preconditions and evolutionary feedback.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0262

Michael Taborsky

{"title":"The evolution of division of labour: preconditions and evolutionary feedback.","authors":"Michael Taborsky","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0262","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0262","url":null,"abstract":"Division of Labour (DoL) among group members reflects the pinnacle of social complexity. The synergistic effects created by task specialization and the sharing of duties benefitting the group raise the efficiency of the acquisition, use, management and defence of resources by a fundamental step above the potential of individual agents. At the same time, it may stabilize societies because of the involved interdependence among collaborators. Here, I review the conditions associated with the emergence of DoL, which include the existence of (i) sizeable groups with enduring membership; (ii) individual specialization improving the efficiency of task performance; and (iii) low conflict of interest among group members owing to correlated payoffs. This results in (iv) a combination of intra-individual consistency with inter-individual variance in carrying out different tasks, which creates (v) some degree of mutual interdependence among group members. DoL typically evolves 'bottom-up' without external regulatory forces, but the latter may gain importance at a later stage of the evolution of social complexity. Owing to the involved feedback processes, cause and effect are often difficult to disentangle in the evolutionary trajectory towards structured societies with well-developed DoL among their members. Nevertheless, the emergence of task specialization and DoL may entail a one-way street towards social complexity, with retrogression getting increasingly difficult the more individual agents depend on each other at progressing stages of social evolution.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230262"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923618/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Workload distribution in wild Damaraland mole-rat groups.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0276

Shay Rotics, Hanna M Bensch, Yehezkel S Resheff, Tim Clutton-Brock, Markus Zöttl

{"title":"Workload distribution in wild Damaraland mole-rat groups.","authors":"Shay Rotics, Hanna M Bensch, Yehezkel S Resheff, Tim Clutton-Brock, Markus Zöttl","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0276","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0276","url":null,"abstract":"The social organization of Damaraland and naked mole-rats is often suggested to resemble the societies of eusocial insects more closely than that of any other vertebrate. Eusocial insects feature queens that hardly contribute to the workforce, and specialized worker castes. However, in Damaraland and naked mole-rats, which live in family groups with a single breeding pair and multiple non-breeding helpers, the work division is still unclear. Previous studies, largely confined to laboratory settings, could not quantify their primary cooperative behaviour, which is digging extensive foraging tunnels. Here, we studied the distribution of workload in 11 wild Damaraland mole-rat groups, using body acceleration loggers to evaluate behavioural time budgets of 86 individuals. We found behavioural differences between breeders and non-breeders that emerged with increases in group size, such that in large groups, breeders spent less time digging, more time resting, and were overall less active than non-breeders. We did not find any indication of a caste system among non-breeders, though the amount of time individuals spent digging varied with age and sex. Overall, the lower contribution by breeders to the group's workload is a pattern rarely observed in other cooperative vertebrates; nevertheless, the lack of evidence for castes suggests that eusociality may be limited to invertebrates.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230276"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923611/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664170","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Changes of division of labour along the eusociality spectrum in termites, with comparisons to multicellularity.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0268

J Korb

{"title":"Changes of division of labour along the eusociality spectrum in termites, with comparisons to multicellularity.","authors":"J Korb","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0268","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0268","url":null,"abstract":"Eusocial insects are characterized by reproductive division of labour, with one (or a few) individuals specialized in reproduction (queen and in termites, also a king) and the other individuals performing all other tasks (workers). Among workers, further division of labour can occur. Termites have three main castes: reproductives, comprising a queen and king; morphologically differentiated sterile soldiers; and workers. Task division among workers varies greatly depending on lifestyle and degree of workers' reproductive potential, which varies from totipotency to reproduce up to sterility. In wood-dwelling species, which do not forage outside the nest, all tasks are performed by totipotent workers, comprising multiple-instars with less further division of labour. Foraging species with pluripotent workers also have a multi-instar worker caste, but some division of labour between brood care versus foraging and defence exists. The first task seems mainly to be done by smaller-and potentially younger-instars, while the latter two tasks are performed by larger-and potentially older-workers. The highest degree of division of labour occurs in foraging species with sterile workers. Here, morphological worker castes with defined tasks and age polyethism occur. Comparisons with Metazoa reveal striking similarities with termites concerning gradients in germline/soma differentiation and cell totipotency.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230268"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923608/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Division of labour as key driver of social evolution.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0261

Michael Taborsky, Jennifer H Fewell, Robert Gilles, Barbara Taborsky

{"title":"Division of labour as key driver of social evolution.","authors":"Michael Taborsky, Jennifer H Fewell, Robert Gilles, Barbara Taborsky","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0261","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0261","url":null,"abstract":"The social division of labour (DoL) has been renowned as a key driver of the economic success of human societies dating back to ancient philosophers such as Plato (in The Republic, ca 380 BCE), Xenophon (in Cyropaedia, ca 370 BCE) and Aristotle (in Politics, ca 350 BCE, and Nicomachean Ethics, ca 340 BCE). Over time, this concept evolved into a cornerstone of political economic thought, most prominently expressed in Smith (in The Wealth of Nations, 1776). In his magnum opus, Adam Smith posited that DoL has caused a greater increase in production than any other factor in human history. There is little doubt that DoL immensely increases productive output, both in humans and in other organisms, but it is less clear how it comes about, how it is organized and what the biological roots are of this human 'turbo enhancer'. We address these questions here using results from studies of a wide range of organisms and various modelling approaches.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230261"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923610/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Role specialization and reproductive division of labour at the origin of eusociality.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0265

Jeremy Field

{"title":"Role specialization and reproductive division of labour at the origin of eusociality.","authors":"Jeremy Field","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0265","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0265","url":null,"abstract":"The evolution of primitive eusociality from non-social ancestors in organisms such as bees and wasps is often regarded as a major evolutionary transition. The division of labour between reproductives that specialize on egg production and workers that specialize on tasks such as foraging is the key feature defining eusociality and is why social insects are so successful ecologically. In taxa with morphological castes, individuals are often irreversibly specialized for particular roles when they reach adulthood. At the origin of sociality, however, such adaptations were absent, and we must consider why selection would favour individuals specializing when they are undifferentiated from the ancestral, non-social phenotype. Here, I focus on constraints based on life-history tradeoffs and plasticity that would be faced by ancestral females when specializing. These include limited efficiency of within-individual tradeoffs between reproductive and worker functions, imperfect matching of the productivities of social partners and lack of coordination. I also discuss the possibility that payoffs through specialization could be condition dependent. Eusocial taxa lacking morphological castes have traditionally been the testing grounds to understand the origin of eusociality, but significant adaptation has occurred since helping first evolved. Investigating role specialization at the origin of eusociality therefore requires utilizing non-social taxa.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230265"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11923616/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664160","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Cultural evolution, social ratcheting and the evolution of human division of labour.

IF 5.4 2区生物学

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Pub Date : 2025-03-20 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0277

Lucio Vinicius, Leonardo Rizzo, Federico Battiston, Andrea Bamberg Migliano

{"title":"Cultural evolution, social ratcheting and the evolution of human division of labour.","authors":"Lucio Vinicius, Leonardo Rizzo, Federico Battiston, Andrea Bamberg Migliano","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0277","DOIUrl":"10.1098/rstb.2023.0277","url":null,"abstract":"While ecological specialization, social differentiation and division of labour are found in many species, extensive and irreversible interdependence among culturally specialized producers is a characteristic feature of humans. By extending the concept of cultural ratcheting (or the evolution of cultural products of such complexity that they become very unlikely to be recreated from scratch by naive individuals), we present simulation models showing how cumulative cultural evolution may have engendered a parallel process of 'social ratcheting' or the origin of culturally differentiated and irreversible interdependent individuals and groups. We provide evidence that the evolution of cultural division of labour in humans may have been associated with social network structures splitting the cognitive costs of cultural production across differentiated specialists, significantly reducing the burden of cultural learning on individual cognition and memory. While previous models often assumed agents with unlimited memories, we show that limiting individual memories to a fraction of available cultural repertoires has a noticeable accelerating effect on both cultural evolution and social differentiation among producers. We conclude that cultural and social ratcheting may have been two linked outcomes of cultural evolution in the hominin lineage.This article is part of the theme issue 'Division of labour as key driver of social evolution'.","PeriodicalId":19872,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences","volume":"380 1922","pages":"20230277"},"PeriodicalIF":5.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11969390/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143664136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0