Search results

Jeffrey Friedman (see SA 41:1/93Z5036) made several charges critical of cultural theory (CT). Although some of the criticism stem from a misreading of CT, others raise vitally important questions about social theory generally. In a reply to Friedman, a defense is offered of the categorization of cultures used in CT, & of the enterprise of constructing general social theories that seek to discern transhistorical patterns. Individualism & egalitarianism are argued to be inseparable; culture is held not to be autonomous; CT does not ignore history; its categories are universal; it can account for preference determination; but it is not amoral & does not absolve the individual of responsibility for making choices. In Cultural Theory as Individualistic Ideology: Rejoinder to Ellis, Friedman asks how one can examine the sources of people's beliefs, tastes, & preferences without falling into "self-refuting determinism." CT's attempt to do so posits five anthropologically derived competing ways of life that are intended to apply to all forms of culture &, therefore, to provide a universal framework for explaining people's preferential biases. Ellis's defense does not adequately address the concerns expressed in the critique. CT's reductionism stems from its neglect of historically contingent cultural traditions that thwart a priori attempts to predict culture. This ahistoricism transforms a myopic view of US politics as a battle of egalitarianism against individualism into a timeless truth, providing ideological self-affirmation for individualists, but diminishing the prospects for being able to explain or criticize individualism -- or any other political preference. Adapted from the source document.

Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- PART 1 Why That Sound? Annoyance andExcitement by Design -- 1 Working -- 2 Consuming -- 3 Suffering -- 4 Joy -- PART 2 Sonic Labor: Statements, Situations, and Cases With illustrations by Julia Krause -- 5 Location and Apparatus -- 6 Skills and Habits -- 7 Conflicts and Heuristics -- 8 Portfolio and Presentation -- PART 3 Living With Sound: The Semiotics and Mediology of Sonic Signs Written in collaboration with Carla J. Maier -- 9 Signifying Sounds -- 10 Situated Signaling -- 11 Transmitting Sounds -- 12 Transcultural Aurality -- PART 4 Sound Works: A Cultural Theory of Sound Design -- 13 The Silencing Dispositive -- 14 The Economy of Sound -- 15 The Panacoustic Society -- 16 The Sonic Capital -- References -- Index.

A socio-anthropological theoretical framework of the so-called Grid-Group Cultural Theory provides a typological model for understanding and mapping of cultural biases (shared values and beliefs), corresponding social relations and strategic behaviours. The starting argument of this paper is that this model can be used to illuminate and investigate the socio-cultural differences in peacebuilding approaches as the four theoretical ideal-types of individualism, egalitarianism, hierarchy and fatalism, correspond to different peacebuilding approaches used by different international actors and in different post-conflict contexts. This typological understanding of approaches to peacebuilding enables also a theoretical analysis of socio-cultural viability of different approaches in different socio-cultural context. The final argument of this paper is thus that viable approaches to peacebuilding are those that are synchronized with the socio-cultural context, i.e., with the cultural bias, social relations and strategic behaviours used by the major social and political actors in the local society.

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction: Terrorism and Cultural Theory: The Singularity of 9/11 by Robert Doran -- Apocalyptic Thinking after 9/11: An Interview with Rene Girard by Robert Doran -- Anatomy of 9/11: Evil, Rationalism, and the Sacred by Jean-Pierre Dupuy -- Untimely Islam: September 11th and the Philosophies of History by Jean-Joseph Goux -- Global Terror, Global Vengenance? by Marcel Henaff -- Hyperculturization" after September 11: The Arab-Muslim World and the West by Hafid Gafaiti -- Creepy Christianity and September 11 by Toby Miller -- The Maltese and the Mustard Fields: Oulipian Translation by Alison James -- Separation, Difference, and Time in Godard's "Ici et ailleurs" by John Drabinski -- Reviews -- Carroll, David. "Albert Camus the Algerian: Colonialism, Terrorism, Justice". Reviewed by David R. Ellison -- Highmore, Ben. "Michel de Certeau: Analysing Culture". Reviewed by Alain Gabon -- Contributors.

ObjectivePolitical parties provide an important function for a public that is generally seen as not consistently ideological by guiding its thinking about policy issues. In this article, we examine whether the four cultural worldviews derived from grid‐group cultural theory—hierarch, egalitarian, individualist, and fatalist—are predictive of partisan attachments and perceptions of climate change risk among the public.MethodsData come from an original survey of the U.S. public conducted in 2011 and 2012. We use regression analysis to examine partisanship and perceived climate change risk; ordered logit to examine party attachment; and mediation analysis to examine the mediating effect of partisanship on cultural worldviews and climate change risk.ResultsWe find that the group‐oriented cultural types (egalitarians and hierarchs) are more likely to have stronger party attachments than the nongroup‐oriented cultural types (individualists and fatalists). In addition, we find that the mediation effect of party is more pronounced among the group‐oriented types than the nongroup oriented.ConclusionGrid‐group cultural theory is predictive of both partisanship and policy attitudes and partisanship mediates the influence of cultural worldviews on climate change risk, particularly for those types with group orientations.

ABSTRACTThe grid-group cultural theory of Mary Douglas is used to produce a basic categorization of polar approaches to control over public administration and management and to illuminate the selfdisequilibrating dynamics of public administration control systems. The four polar types are based on contrived randomness, competition, mutuality and review. The self-disequilibrating processes work through a combination of mutual repulsion among the polar types and the inherent limitations of each type, which will tend to produce more serious side-effects and reverse effects the more emphasis is placed on any one type. Six hybrid types of control are discussed as simple pairwise combinations of the four polar types, but such hybrids are also likely to be unstable. The approach used here appears at least as good on three criteria as any other current available classification of controls over public administration and it offers a distinctive agenda for examining control design and outcomes.

This symposium highlighted the relevance of the cultural theory (CT) pioneered by anthropologists Mary Douglas, Steve Rayner, and Michael Thompson and political scientists Aaron Wildavsky and Richard Ellis for explaining political phenomena. In this concluding article, we suggest ways in which CT can be further tested and developed. First, we describe how the theory has been applied thus far and some of the achievements of these applications. Then, we examine some of the challenges revealed by this research. Finally, we discuss ways of applying CT that promise to help meet these challenges. These methods include nesting case studies and combining case study and survey research, simulations, experiments, and approaches from social neuroscience.

Drawing on Mary Douglas's cultural theory, our research analyzes the cultural schemes or biases mobilized by compensation committee (CC) members, in the context of public companies, when making sense of their committee's work. Relying on semi-structured interviews mostly conducted with CC members in Canada, our analysis brings to the fore the production of moral and rational comfort within the boundaries of the individualistic and hierarchical culture. Under an individualistic bias, the compensation market is seen as natural, providing conditions of possibility that serve to establish fair compensation through the creation and enforcement of contracts. Under a hierarchic bias which emphasizes principles of objectivity and measurability, members of CCs tend to conceive the design of compensation policies as an act of expertise, relying extensively on consultants and measurement techniques to determine acceptable reward boundaries. Not only does our paper contribute to corporate governance literature by providing insight into a central aspect of CCs, that is to say CC members' ways of thinking and doing, but the juxtaposition of cultural theory with CC empirics provides us with the opportunity to reflect and theorize on the issue of cultural change.

Understanding differences in environmental risk perception and risk judgments might facilitate the development of effective environmental risk management strategies, including risk communication. Cultural theory holds that systematic individual differences exist in the perception of environmental risks based on four different myths of nature: nature benign, nature ephemeral, nature perverse/tolerant, and nature capricious. The myths of nature represent distinct perceptions toward environmental risks, which are assumed to be closely related to preferences for appropriate risk management strategies. The authors examined to what extent myths of nature are related to beliefs associated with problems of car use and preferences for strategies to manage these problems. As hypothesized, significant variations in perceptions, preferences, and policy evaluations were found among respondents favoring different myths of nature. Nature ephemeral was associated with a higher problem awareness and a more positive evaluation of policy measures, especially in comparison to nature benign.

[Los años sesenta y yo: de la revolución cultural a la teoría cultural]ABSTRACTIn this article, the author offers an approach to his personal and academic development during the 1960s and how they laid the foundations for his contributions in the field of sociology. Pointing out those years as a moment in which a tumultuous social conscience, strongly influenced by the New Left, broke with the static rationalization of modernity, the author analyzes his radicalization in Marxism during his student years at Harvard and his eventual distancing from it. He also explores how the Vietman war and specific events of the time shaped an entire generation, through pointing to the possible existence of alternative social orders.RESUMENEn este artículo el autor ofrece un acercamiento a lo que fue su formación personal y académica durante la década de 1960 y cómo ellas sentaron las bases para sus contribuciones en el ámbito de la sociología. Señalando esos años como un momento en el que una tumultuosa conciencia social, fuertemente influida por la Nueva Izquierda, rompió con la racionalización estática de la modernidad, el autor analiza su radicalización en el marxismo durante su estancia en Harvard y su eventual distanciamiento del mismo. Asimismo, relata cómo la guerra de Vietnam y ciertos eventos específicos de la época moldearon a toda una generación, a través de apuntar hacia la posible existencia de órdenes sociales alternativos.

Cultural Theory's (CT) four 'cultural biases' hold an intuitive appeal and empirical resonance for policy scholars as they seek to make sense of complex policy contexts. Yet research applications of CT are often hampered by superficial classifications and a lack of operationalisable measures. This article solves these problems, presenting valid measures in a 'compass' and 'map' to show how cultural patterns are both 'internalised' in individuals and 'institutionalised' in policy contexts. Key tensions here provide researchers with new interpretive tools to promote better questioning, learning and adaptation within particular policy environments, including opportunities for research impact through practical, 'institutional work'.