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Book Cover
E-book
Author Thompson, M. (Michael), 1937-

Title Cultural theory / Michael Thompson, Richard Ellis, Aaron Wildavsky
Published New York ; London : Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018

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Description 1 online resource
Series Political cultures
Political cultures.
Contents Cover; Half Title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Figures and Tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; Sociocultural Viability: An Introduction; Our Point of Departure: The Grid-Group Typology; The Patterns Behind the Dimensions; How Free to Choose What?; Notes; PART ONE THE THEORY; Introduction to Part One: Against Dualism; Notes; 1 The Social Construction of Nature; Five Myths of Nature; The Hermit's Myth; The Social Construction of Human Nature; Notes; 2 Making Ends Meet; Reconciling Needs and Resources; Limits to Reconciling Needs and Resources
Five Strategies Mapped onto Five Ways of LifeOnly Five Management Strategies?; Notes; 3 Preferences; Accounting for Tastes; Deriving Preferences from Ways of Life; Conclusion; Notes; 4 Ringing the Changes; Thinking About Surprise; A Typology of Surprises; Twelve Kinds of Change; Loosening the Constraints; Change Is Essential to Stability; Notes; 5 Instability of the Parts, Coherence of the Whole; Traveling Hopefully, Never Arriving; The Making and Breaking of Alliances; Fatalism's Functions; Why Pluralism Is Essential; Cultural Theory Restated; Notes; PART TWO THE MASTERS
Introduction to Part Two: The Indispensability of Functional ExplanationComparing Typologies of Viable Ways of Life; Cultural-Functional Explanation; Notes; 6 Montesquieu, Comte, and Spencer; Montesquieu; Auguste Comte; Herbert Spencer; The Biological Parallel; Cycling In and Out in Highland Burma; Notes; 7 Durkheim; Young Emile and Master Durkheim; The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life; The Division of Labor in Society; Suicide; The Master, Not the Whippersnapper; Notes; 8 Marx; Marx's Historical Materialism; Mystification in Marxian and Cultural Theory
Marx's Claim to a Privileged PositionBeyond Individualist Hegemony; Is Communism a New Way of Life?; Notes; 9 Weber; Weber and Grid-Group Analysis; Weber and Functional Explanation; Weber and Durkheim Compared; Conclusion; Notes; 10 Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, and Parsons; Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown; Talcott Parsons; Linking the Micro and Macro; The Assumption of Societal Consensus; The Pattern Variables; Functional Requisites; Notes; 11 Merton, Stinchcombe, and Elster; Robert Merton; Arthur Stinchcombe and Jon Elster; Notes; PART THREE POLITICAL CULTURES
Introduction to Part Three: Cultures Are Plural, Not SingularOn the Political in Political Culture; Culture and Its Critics; Political Culture and National Character; Notes; 12 The Missing Ways of Life: Egalitarianism and Fatalism; The Moral Basis of a Backward Society; The Mandarin and the Cadre; Notes; 13 American Political Subcultures; Notes; 14 The Civic Culture Reexamined; Italy; Germany; Mexico; The United States and Great Britain; The Cultural Requisites of Democratic Stability; Notes; 15 Hard Questions, Soft Answers; Stolen Rhetoric and Cultural Traitors; The Multiple Self
Summary Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend, should start with these questions, and the answers, given different historical conditions, should apply equally well to people of all times, places, and walks of life. Taking their cue from the pioneering work of anthropologist Mary Douglas, the authors of Cultural Theory have created a typology of five ways of life?egalitarianism, fatalism, individualism, hierarchy, and autonomy?to serve as an analytic tool in examining people, culture, and politics. They then show how cultural theorists can develop large numbers of falsifiable propositions. Drawing on parables, poetry, case studies, fiction, and the Great Books, the authors illustrate how cultural biases and social relationships interact in particular ways to yield life patterns that are viable, sustainable, and ultimately, changeable under certain conditions. Figures throughout the book show the dynamic quality of these ways of life and specifically illustrate the role of surprise in effecting small- and large-scale change. The authors compare Cultural Theory with the thought of master social theorists from Montesquieu to Stinchcombe and then reanalyze the classic works in the political culture tradition from Almond and Verba to Pye. Demonstrating that there is more to social life than hierarchy and individualism, the authors offer evidence from earlier studies showing that the addition of egalitarianism and fatalism facilitates cross-national comparisons
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Description based on print version record
Subject Culture.
Social change.
Personality and culture.
Typology (Psychology)
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
Cultura
Typology (Psychology)
Social change
Personality and culture
Culture
Social policy
Sociology
Kultursoziologie
Kulturtheorie
Politische Soziologie
Soziologie
Cultuur.
Theorieën.
Cultura (teoria)
Typologie (psychologie)
Personnalité et culture.
Changement social.
Culture.
Form Electronic book
Author Ellis, Richard (Richard J.)
Wildavsky, Aaron B
LC no. 2020690709
ISBN 9780429980817
0429980817
9780429501180
0429501188
9780429969737
0429969732