This book focuses on rural-urban migrants in China. They are one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in the country but are essential to the country's industrialization and urbanization. Integration of these migrants into urban societies is an urgent issue facing Chinese policy makers. The book provides an updated, systematic, empirically rich, and multifaceted analysis of migrant integration, its determinants and consequences in China. It integrates insights from the perspective of sociology, population studies, social psychology, and public health to help us understand how and why migrants integrate, the role of migrant networks in social integration, and the relationship between integration of migrants and their mental health and settlement intentions.

An international group of distinguished scientists presents an up-to-date survey of quantitative problems at the forefront of modern evolutionary theory. Their articles illustrate results from the latest research in population and behavioral genetics, molecular evolution, and ecology. Each author gives careful attention to the exposition of the models, the logic of their analysis, and the legitimacy of qualitative biological inferences. The topics covered include stochastic models of finite populations and the sorts of diffusion approximations that are valid for their study, models of migration, kin selection, geneculture coevolution, sexual selection, life-history evolution, the statistics of linkage disequilibrium, and the molecular evolution of repeated DNA sequences and the HLA system in humans.

The fourteen contributions are presented in two sections: Part I, Stochastic and Deterministic Genetic Theory, and Part II, Behavior, Ecology, and Evolutionary Genetics. Marcus W. Feldman provides an introduction to each part. The contributors are J. G. Bodmer, W. F. Bodmer, L. L. Cavalli Sforza, F. B. Christiansen, C. Cockerham, W. J. Ewens, M. W. Feldman, J. H. Gillespie, R. R. Hudson, N. L. Kaplan, S. Lessard, U. Liberman, M.E.N. Majerus, P. O'Donald, J. Roughgarden, S. Tavar, M. K. Uyenoyama, G. A. Watterson, and B. Weir.

Originally published in 1989.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"We humans are increasingly aware of the way our activities are altering our environment. We rarely reflect, however, that the entire evolutionary history of life on earth is written essentially in terms of organism' modification of their environment, and responses to the subsequent changes. This book is a wonderful exploration of this strangely neglected topic, opening new vistas on how organisms--including humans--construct ecological niches over evolutionary time. After developing a basic theoretical framework, the authors first indicate applications of these new ideas to evolutionary biology, to ecology, and to the human sciences. They even risk some testable predictions. I think this book is a 'must read.'"--Robert M. May, University of Oxford

"There has been a growing understanding in biology that organisms do not simply 'adapt' to preexisting environments, but that they actively change and construct the world in which they live. Not until "Niche Construction," however, has that understanding been turned into a coherent structure that brings together the observations about natural history and an exact dynamical theory. The sobriquet, 'landmark' is casually used to press the virtues of books, but seldom can it be taken seriously, Niche Construction really is a landmark book."--Richard Lewontin, Harvard University

"If the amount of attention warranted by this book is paid to it, the result should be a massive reorientation of evolutionary theory."--David Hull, Northwestern University

"This ambitious book tackles a problem of fundamental importance in science: the whole-hearted synthesis of the disciplines of ecology and evolution. The marriage of these two has often beenannounced, but the consummation of the union is long overdue."--Robert D. Holt, University of Florida

"Organisms are affected by the world in which they live but also influence that world. Importantly, they may play an active role in constructing the ecological niche into which they fit. This construction process inevitably affects the evolution of their descendants. Odling-Smee, Laland, and Feldman have provided the first full-length treatment of an intensely absorbing topic which deserves the close attention of anybody interested in evolution."--Patrick Bateson, The Provost's Lodge, King's College, Cambridge

A number of scholars have found that concepts such as mutation, selection, and random drift, which emerged from the theory of biological evolution, may also explain evolutionary phenomena in other disciplines as well. Drawing on these concepts, Professors Cavalli-Sforza and Feldman classify and systematize the various modes of transmitting "culture" and explore their consequences for cultural evolution. In the process, they develop a mathematical theory of the non-genetic transmission of cultural traits that provides a framework for future investigations in quantitative social and anthropological science. The authors use quantitative models that incorporate the various modes of transmission (for example, parent-child, peer-peer, and teacher-student), and evaluate data from sociology, archaeology, and epidemiology in terms of the models. They show that the various modes of transmission in conjunction with cultural and natural selection produce various rates of cultural evolution and various degrees of diversity within and between groups. The same framework can be used for explaining phenomena as apparently unrelated as linguistics, epidemics, social values and customs, and diffusion of innovations. The authors conclude that cultural transmission is an essential factor in the study of cultural change.

An international group of distinguished scientists presents an up-to-date survey of quantitative problems at the forefront of modern evolutionary theory. Their articles illustrate results from the latest research in population and behavioral genetics, molecular evolution, and ecology. Each author gives careful attention to the exposition of the models, the logic of their analysis, and the legitimacy of qualitative biological inferences. The topics covered include stochastic models of finite populations and the sorts of diffusion approximations that are valid for their study, models of migration, kin selection, geneculture coevolution, sexual selection, life-history evolution, the statistics of linkage disequilibrium, and the molecular evolution of repeated DNA sequences and the HLA system in humans. The fourteen contributions are presented in two sections: Part I, Stochastic and Deterministic Genetic Theory, and Part II, Behavior, Ecology, and Evolutionary Genetics. Marcus W. Feldman provides an introduction to each part. The contributors are J. G. Bodmer, W. F. Bodmer, L. L. Cavalli Sforza, F. B. Christiansen, C. Cockerham, W. J. Ewens, M. W. Feldman, J. H. Gillespie, R. R. Hudson, N. L. Kaplan, S. Lessard, U. Liberman, M.E.N. Majerus, P. O'Donald, J. Roughgarden, S. Tavar, M. K. Uyenoyama, G. A. Watterson, and B. Weir. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A new account of the central role developmental processes play in evolution.

A new scientific view of evolution is emerging—one that challenges and expands our understanding of how evolution works. Recent research demonstrates that organisms differ greatly in how effective they are at evolving. Whether and how each organism adapts and diversifies depends critically on the mechanistic details of how that organism operates—its development, physiology, and behavior. That is because the evolutionary process itself has evolved over time, and continues to evolve. The scientific understanding of evolution is evolving too, with groundbreaking new ways of explaining evolutionary change. In this book, a group of leading biologists draw on the latest findings in evolutionary genetics and evo-devo, as well as novel insights from studies of epigenetics, symbiosis, and inheritance, to examine the central role that developmental processes play in evolution.

Written in an accessible style, and illustrated with fascinating examples of natural history, the book presents recent scientific discoveries that expand evolutionary biology beyond the classical view of gene transmission guided by natural selection. Without undermining the central importance of natural selection and other Darwinian foundations, new developmental insights indicate that all organisms possess their own characteristic sets of evolutionary mechanisms. The authors argue that a consideration of developmental phenomena is needed for evolutionary biologists to generate better explanations for adaptation and biodiversity. This book provides a new vision of adaptive evolution.