Mutual Aid Theory and Human Development: Sociability as Primary

Abstract

Mutual aid theory emerged as a model for evolution in pre-revolutionary Russia, roughly parallel to the rise of evolutionary theory in England. Perhaps the most well known exponent of mutual aid theory was the sociobiologist and political theorist Petr Kropotkin. In his writings Kropotkin embraced the general framework of Darwin's ideas, but stressed the issue of social cooperation, as opposed to egoistic competition, as the keystone of species development. Kropotkin suggested that sociability, the desire of members of a species to be in relationship with their own, and the quality of life they get from these relationships, is primary; and that all species development flows from this sociability. Sociability is developed over the course of evolution through a process of natural selection: organisms with greater capabilities for social organization based on mutual aid have far greater chances for survival across a wide spectrum of ecological conditions. Kropotkin's theory of sociability is both unique and scientifically valid, and it calls into question some of the basic pre-suppositions of not only current, dominant models of sociobiology, but much human development theory and research. The final part of this paper suggests some of the ways mutual aid theory might lead the field to rethink issues concerning culture and human development.