According to Rob Hopkins of the Transition Movement, and following David Holmgren, the co-creator of the permaculture concept, sustainability is not enough and we need to move beyond it. But what comes after sustainability? The answer, it seems, is: resilience. How successful has the paradigm of sustainability been at achieving its aims? It makes an … Continue reading What comes after Sustainability? Resilience?
Author: fourcultures
Cultural theory, communication and the power of new media
Those seeking change will keep on looking for the quality of information they need until they find it.
Four ways to assemble the evidence on climate change
To pursuade more people about climate change we need a greater diversity of argument
Why are people so conflicted about the right response to the pandemic?
Is there a cultural theory perspective on the COVID pandemic of 2020-21? Of course there is: Davy, Benjamin. "Social Distancing and Cultural Bias: On the Spatiality of COVID-19." Journal of the American Planning Association 87, no. 2 (2021): 159-166. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944363.2020.1824617
Cultural Theory in 2019
When Mary Douglas published her groundbreaking work, Natural Symbols in 1970, journals of anthropology, sociology and philosophy reviewed it. Although Douglas was an anthropologist, her work had implications well beyond that single discipline. Chapter 4 of the book, 'Grid and group' summarised an approach to social analysis that has been greatly extended and widely adopted … Continue reading Cultural Theory in 2019
Google must drop Dragonfly
Seeing that Google’s management (now called Alphabet) is at serious odds with its employees over working in China on Project Dragonfly, it appears that the Google Dilemma is very far from over. I wrote a short series of posts about the cultural misunderstandings between Google and the Chinese Government, and it's still going on. To … Continue reading Google must drop Dragonfly
Loving Nostalgia
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/conservatives-love-of-nostalgia-can-be-used-to-promote-liberal-values.html http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-00810-001 Conservatives appear to be more receptive to liberal ideas when they are associated with the past. Conversely, though, liberals do not appear receptive to conservative ideas when they are associated with the future. The abstract concludes : "A large portion of the political disagreement between conservatives and liberals appears to be disagreement over … Continue reading Loving Nostalgia
Facebook in 2008
Looking back it's quite possible to see that everything said in 2018 about Facebook was pretty obvious more than a decade ago. There's a great deal of wishful thinking about social media and the Internet generally, especially regarding its supposed emancipatory potential. And the problem is deeper than one corporation, however dominant. It hinges on … Continue reading Facebook in 2008
Make your own rules
Here's a photo taken a while ago that never made it into a post. It's an advert I saw on a bus shelter. It isn't the clearest photo in the world, but it tells a story. The story it tells is very clearly expressed by the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. It shows that in our society, … Continue reading Make your own rules
The worst of superstitions
Yet the superstition In which we have grown up, not therefore loses When we detect it, all its influence on us. Not all are free that can bemock their fetters... The worst of superstitions is to think One's own most bearable. G. Lessing, Nathan the Wise
Four Cultures 