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
Tag: cultural theory
The feedback loop as a symbol for life in the 21st Century
self-organisation is a high-level property that emerges from the underlying network, not a feature of any of the individual components. This has interesting consequences. Where any part of the mechanism is sensitive to the environment, the whole self-organising loop can be too. http://aeon.co/magazine/science/why-the-symbol-of-life-is-a-loop-not-a-helix/ Here's an example from the Resilience Alliance - the adaptive cycle - that … Continue reading The feedback loop as a symbol for life in the 21st Century
How to inspire people with prize money
Would you put in more effort if you thought you could win a large cash prize? What about if that prize was broken up into a series of smaller prizes - how hard would you work then? 'In praise of big prizes' at the Freakonomics site, had some advice for a professor at the University … Continue reading How to inspire people with prize money
New Ways of Working
New Ways of Working This white paper is worth reading and owes quite a lot to the cultural theory understanding of organisations. (Found at http://sourcesofinsight.com/4-workplace-archetypes-hierarchy-market-place-adhocracy-and-village/)
A Simple Primer on Cultural Cognition
A Simple Primer on Cultural CognitionThe New Republic has a short summary of the cultural cognition project: how to talk to climate change deniers.Those who 'deny' climate change aren't mad, deluded or evil - they're just paying close attention to the community to which they owe allegiance. Various groups make use of publicly held views … Continue reading A Simple Primer on Cultural Cognition
Friends, colleagues, or partners – what’s your favourite collaboration style?
Matthew Taylor of the RSA, blogs about collaboration styles in education... Oiling the System.
Apparently, “Science Confirms The Obvious: Strict Parents Raise Conservative Kids”
"Science Confirms The Obvious: Strict Parents Raise Conservative Kids" - http://pulse.me/s/eC9fb If so, would it be possible to conduct similar experiments to test whether parents with a particularly strong cultural bias raise their children to have a similar bias? So, for example, do Fatalist parents raise Fatalist kids? My guess here is that the social … Continue reading Apparently, “Science Confirms The Obvious: Strict Parents Raise Conservative Kids”
The really real reason why banks have so many scandals
“Since we have not more power of knowing the future than any other men, we have made many mistakes (who has not during the past five years?), but our mistakes have been errors of judgment and not of principle.” J.P. Morgan Jnr, 1933 A couple of months ago I was toying with the idea of … Continue reading The really real reason why banks have so many scandals
magic and technology
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
Cultural Theory and the Public Benefit Requirement
WB of Down at Third Man asked for a Cultural Theory perspective on the concept of ‘public benefit’ as it applies to the charitable working of private schools in the UK. Would you be willing and able to give me your view on how the four cultures would perceive 'public benefit' say with regard to … Continue reading Cultural Theory and the Public Benefit Requirement
Four Cultures 