The Cool Water Effect: Why Human Civilization Turned towards Emancipation in Cold-Wet Regions

自贾里德·戴蒙德以来，关于西方文明解放动力的长期驱动力的文学作品如雨后春笋般涌现。作为这项学术的一部分，我打算详细阐述一个在我自己的工作中得到证明的理论不足的观察：文献中引用的大多数长期司机都与一种特殊的地理气候结构--凉水(CW)条件--即寒冷季节和持续降雨的组合感到困惑。以此为出发点，我想深入研究三个命题。首先，CW条件体现了解放动力的种子，因为它赋予人们重要的基层自治，如取水、粮食生产和家庭组建的自主权。其次，随着更复杂的社会组织--从私营企业到志愿协会再到国家行政机构--的形成，种子开始萌芽：在基层自治的存在下，社会组织通过解放斗争演变而来，在这些斗争中，团体要求自由，然后自由变得越来越牢固。第三，加速全球化正在将解放斗争移植到没有CW条件的世界地区，从而放松了地理对社会选择的控制。我提出的项目具有全球性和时代性。事实上，我计划使用世界上所有国家的数据。这些数据记录了从殖民、工业和信息时代前夕到今天的一系列历史层面的情况。总体而言，这个项目的目标有两个：(1)理论--进一步发展我的三个主要命题的论点；(2)经验--巩固和扩展已经存在的初步证据。

Since Jared Diamond, there is a burgeoning literature on the long-term drivers of Western civilization's emancipatory dynamic. Contributing to this scholarship, I intend to elaborate on an under-theorized observation evidenced in my own work: most long-term drivers cited in the literature are confounded with a particular geo-climatic configuration – the Cool Water (CW-) condition, that is, the combination of cold seasons with continuous rain. Taking this observation as the point of departure, I wish to examine three propositions in-depth. First, the CW-condition embodies the seed of emancipatory dynamics because it endows people with vital grass-roots autonomies, like autonomy in water access, food production and household formation. Second, the seed began to germinate as more complex social organizations – from private corporations to voluntary associations to state administration – formed: in the presence of grass-roots autonomies, social organization evolves through emancipatory struggles in which groups claim freedoms, which then become increasingly firmly encultured. Third, accelerating globalization is transplanting emancipatory struggles into world regions without the CW-condition, thus loosening geography's grip on social choice.My proposed project is global in coverage and long-term in its temporal orientation. Indeed, I plan to use data for all countries of the world. These data capture conditions along a sequence of historical layers, from the eve of the colonial, industrial and information ages until today. I intend to explore the linkages leading from preceding to subsequent layers of history.Overall, the goal of this project is two-fold: (1) THEORY - further developing the arguments informing my three main propositions; (2) EMPIRICS - consolidating and expanding the already existing, albeit preliminary evidence.