Search results for "Division of labor"
showing 5 items of 5 documents
Division of labor in anti-parasite defense strategies in ant colonies
2014
Division of labor is a key characteristic of social insects and contributes to their ecological success. Especially in disease defense, the intra-colony partitioning of sanitary work can reduce disease transmission, keep nestmates available for other tasks and reduce costs associated with sanitary task performance (i.e. at the behavioral and physiological level). Factors internal and external to the individual affecting sanitary task allocation are not well known and most studies investigated genetic differences between workers performing behavioral sanitary work. In the first two studies I addressed whether individual experience (through repeated exposure to a sanitary hazard or performanc…
Marx y Engels y la división sexual del trabajo en la familia: ambigüedades, equívocos y vacíos teóricos
2018
Dada la importante influencia de Marx y Engels en el análisis de la estructura social, no sorprende el notable impacto de su obra en el estudio del papel de la mujer en la familia. Sin embargo, su herencia en este ámbito sociológico ha dado lugar a interpretaciones muy polarizadas. Este artículo quiere aportar algo de luz evidenciando las contradicciones del marxismo al estudiar el papel de la mujer en la familia. Para ello se comparan las contribuciones de Marx y Engels para calibrar posibles diferencias en las posturas de dos autores que en otros ámbitos han presentado un pensamiento muy homogéneo. Los resultados obtenidos permiten afirmar que, a pesar de su innegable influencia en el pen…
Experimental increase of worker diversity benefits brood production in ants
2021
Background The reproductive division of labor of eusocial insects, whereby one or several queens monopolize reproduction, evolved in a context of high genetic relatedness. However, many extant eusocial species have developed strategies that decrease genetic relatedness in their colonies, suggesting some benefits of the increased diversity. Multiple studies support this hypothesis by showing positive correlations between genetic diversity and colony fitness, as well as finding effects of experimental manipulations of diversity on colony performance. However, alternative explanations could account for most of these reports, and the benefits of diversity on performance in eusocial insects stil…
Smithian Growth and Complexity
2016
In this paper we argue that Adam Smith’s theory of division and labor and economic growth, in particular through the developments of Alfred Marshall, Allyn Young and Nicholas Kaldor, has characteristics that allow to classify it in the realm of complexity economics. We support this claim by a historical reconstruction of the Smithian growth theory highlighting the characteristics that we show also characterize complex systems. We compare this perspective with the one developed by the traditional economic approach, rooted in general equilibrium, and describe a simple alternative model