http://fourcultures.com/2009/09/27/why-psychology-fails-to-explain-the-global-financial-crisis/ Cultural Theory and Society Sun, 20 May 2012 21:17:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://fourcultures.com/2009/09/27/why-psychology-fails-to-explain-the-global-financial-crisis/#comment-641 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:34:23 +0000 http://fourcultures.com/?p=821#comment-641 Thank you Dave, I’d love to know what the actuaries thought of this presentation! It seems like there could be a worthwhile fit. And I also must ask what you yourself think of the critique of psychological explanations, as above. I note the presentation you link to sees each of the four cultural biases almost as ‘personality types’, or as four ideal type actuaries with typical views and typical statements. I think this works for introducing Cultural Theory, but isn’t there a danger, as I said in my original post, that this is an Individualist retelling of Cultural Theory, in which the individual is the measure? Surely its our institutions, our cultures, that try to make us Individualists (or Egalitarians, Fatalists, Hierarchists) and we have to live with them somehow as humans? I guess I’m arguing, at least party inspired by Mary Douglas, that our personalities aren’t merely our own, embedded in our brains, but arise out of their context. Anyway, thanks so much for the link.

]]> http://fourcultures.com/2009/09/27/why-psychology-fails-to-explain-the-global-financial-crisis/#comment-638 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:52:10 +0000 http://fourcultures.com/?p=821#comment-638 Here is an attempt to start to explain the crisis in Cultural Theory terms.
http://www.soa.org/files/pdf/2009-chicago-erm-ingram-02.pdf
Or an audio of the same material
http://www.soa.org/files/audio/2009-chicago-erm-ingram-lunch.mp3

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