Prof Alan Jacobs wants to know whether magic and technology can learn to get along with each other. He laments the dominant tone of fantasy literature that sees natural magic opposed to cultural machinery. http://theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/magic-and-technology-can-the-two-coexist/260412/ Jacobs hopes for: "A fictional world where magic rules but is not the only game in town". This sounds … Continue reading magic and technology
Tag: books
Explaining Political Judgement
Fourcultures has previously reviewed the work of Perri 6 , Professor of social policy at Nottingham Trent University. The Institutional Dynamics of Culture (which he edited with Gerald Mars) remains the most important compendium of sources on Mary Douglas's cultural theory. His latest book is Explaining Political Judgement, which looks to be a very thorough … Continue reading Explaining Political Judgement
Everyone loves a quiz
Everyone loves a quiz and Psychology Today magazine has a cultural cognition quiz for you, courtesy of David Ropeik. Roepik is the author of How Risky is it, Really? Why our fears don't always match the facts. His website offers exerpts from the book and -wait for it - more quizzes! While you're here, though, … Continue reading Everyone loves a quiz
The a href= test
at the if:book blog, of the Centre for the Future of the Book, Dan Visel has been reading Claude Lévi-Strauss's Tristes Tropiques and noting his link between the invention of writing and improved social control. Dan's 'wish that someone would present a cogent argument against reading' rang a bell and I remembered Douglas Rushkoff's argument … Continue reading The a href= test
“God is a Brazilian” – risk perception in Brazil
John Adams of Imperial College London produced a new preface for the Brazilian translation of his important book Risk. His very interesting analysis of the social construction of risk is strongly informed by Grid-group cultural theory: “I have been increasingly impressed by the ability of cultural theory to bring a modicum of order and civility … Continue reading “God is a Brazilian” – risk perception in Brazil
What are your friends worth?
Adam L Penenberg has created the perfect illustration for his new book Viral Loop. It’s a Facebook app that tells you exactly how much in dollars you and your network of friends are worth to Facebook. How could you resit using it? Here's a book extract. And here's the Fast Company article that started it.
Why Psychology fails to explain the Global Financial Crisis
Listening to Australian historian Robert Mann's recent lecture at the Melbourne Writers' Festival on whether neo-liberalism has a future, I was struck by the deficiency of the rush to psychological explanation. In seeking to analyse the supposed inadequacies of the free-market ideology, there is an increasing tendency to rely on psychology as the master discipline, … Continue reading Why Psychology fails to explain the Global Financial Crisis
I’ll have four of everything
So many four-fold conceptual schemes, so little time... The following three appear arbitary, contrived, as though arranging a subject matter in groups of four was in itself clever (and just to complete my own set of four, here's one I wrote about earlier). Manuel Castells’ (2001) four cultures of the internet: * Academics * Open … Continue reading I’ll have four of everything
On the Meaning of Culture
Grid-Group Cultural Theory is an uncomfortable thing to live with. It claims that our rationality is partial rather than complete. Instead of one version of common sense, which sensible people have and stupid people ignore, there are actually four competing versions of rationality, four different takes on the way the world actually is. Although we … Continue reading On the Meaning of Culture
The Four Cultures of Administrative Justice
New article : A Cultural Analysis of Administrative Justice This chapter from an upcoming book is a thoughtful take on the mismatch between contemporary concepts of public management and the theories of administrative justice that they intersect with. It’s a good example of the usefulness of Grid-Group Cultural Theory to make sense of the social. … Continue reading The Four Cultures of Administrative Justice
Four Cultures 