The Nature and Nurturing of Collaboration

by Richard L. Hayes

Overview

Nature and the Nurturing of Collaboration tells the wondrous story of how the natural forces of biological evolution gave way to the co-evolution of genes and a nurturing culture that gave rise to us. Several million years in the making, collaboration is the story of human cultural evolution—who we are, how we came to be this way, and how collaboration enabled humans to dominate the Earth. Through a series of genetic accidents, disruptive climatic events, and changing social condition, humans emerged with a set of "fortunate" adaptations that enabled a general capacity for collaboration. Richard L. Hayes explains how these adaptations enabled them to work as members of a cultural group in acts of collective intentionality. Nurtured through the challenge and support offered by others in close social interaction, these capacities enabled the collaborative process of adjusting behaviors and expectations in arriving at mutually determined solutions to mutually defined problems. How adults can nurture these capacities in children, how organizations can improve members' performance, and how individuals can become better collaborators are discussed in this volume. How building collaborative communities has advanced our mutual understanding across cultures and ensures that collaboration serves the public good offer a tentative end to the story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666957914
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/15/2024
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

Richard L. Hayes is professor emeritus of the University of Georgia and dean emeritus of the University of South Alabama.

Table of Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Defining Collaboration

Chapter 2: The Evolution of Collaboration

Chapter 3: The Collaborative Brain

Chapter 4: Human and Cultural Evolution

Chapter 5: Cumulative Culture and Collaboration

Chapter 6: Nurturing Collaborative Capacities

Chapter 7: Creating Collaborative Conditions

Chapter 8: Building Collaborative Communities

Chapter 9: Becoming a Better Collaborator

Chapter 10: Collaborating for Good

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

This is an intelligent book that draws upon multiple, sophisticated, and relevant sources from a wide variety of fields. In weaving this complex scholarship into an understandable and coherent whole, Hayes provides an important and sophisticated thesis: Collaboration is a mutual process in which interlocutors act with respect to a shared purpose within the context of shared meanings. In so doing, he advocates that the capacity for collaboration is grounded in that which is ‘natural’ but cannot be separated from the interplay of biological, individual, and socio-cultural processes that ‘nurture’ its continued development. If our natural capacity for collaboration is nurtured by individuals, relationships, and cultures, we can draw on the ideas contained in this book to build more collaborative interactions, relationships, and societies.

Michael F. Mascolo

Our species cooperates on a scale unprecedented in the natural world. But that is neither oddity nor fluke—we made it so! Since humans first walked the planet, we have been active agents in our evolution and in the construction of societies. Harnessing that agency for the greater good is imperative if humanity is to conquer twenty-first century challenges and build a better world. Richard L. Hayes’s The Nature and Nurturing of Collaboration treats the reader to an enthralling account of the roots of human collaboration and its vital futures.

Kevin N. Lala

Rarely does an intellectually riveting book arrive in the public arena at such a critical time in the future of our society. In The Nature and Nurturing of Collaboration, Richard L. Hayes makes theoretical and experiential connections between biology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, sociology, and cognitive neurology to show how humans of different backgrounds, opinions, and lifestyles can work and live together for the betterment of all. Thoughtful, readable, and well-researched, this book is a ‘tour de force’ for understanding how collaboration can contribute to developing more satisfying personal lives and healthier communities at large.

Carl Glickman

We approach the point in human civilization in which we either collaborate or perish. In this wonderfully readable work, Hayes not only sketches out the resources for collaboration that we inherit from our evolutionary past but also explores the means for nurturing collaborative potentials and creating the conditions and practices vital to their implementation. If we are to build a viable future together, this is essential reading.

Kenneth J. Gergen