‘The Neighborhood Project:’ Tackling Social Problems with Evolutionary Biology

Many U.S. cities that once depended on manufacturing –  cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Binghamton, N.Y. –  experienced job loss and a decline in population years before the Great Recession began. John Hockenberry grew up outside of Binghamton and watched a great, vibrant city fall. IBM, once a major employer in the area, moved its factories overseas, and other businesses followed. Today, downtown Binghamton is filled with empty storefronts and houses. David Sloan Wilson  is a professor of biology and anthropology at SUNY Binghamton. He spent his career studying evolution in animals until he recently decided to try using evolutionary theory to solve social problems in his town. Wilson details his findings in a new book, “The Neighborhood Project.”