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
Tag: Grid-Group
Does Cultural Theory predict its own rejection?
Commenter 'riskviews' recently suggested: I would guess that Grid-Group Theory would predict that it would not itself be widely accepted. In fact, I belive that if it WERE widely accepted, then that would prove it false. There are a few possible responses to this interesting proposition. First, riskviews could be right. Cultural theory has been explored in … Continue reading Does Cultural Theory predict its own rejection?
Some questions about Grid-Group Cultural Theory
Here's some provocative questions about Cultural Theory from Y. Before I attempt an answer, I wonder if anyone else reading this has an opinion or comment... 1. is the theory considered to be a post modern one? 2. does it have prestige in the academic world or is considered niche theory? 3. do you think … Continue reading Some questions about Grid-Group Cultural Theory
False Signal?
“My father told me the oceans were limitless, but that was a false signal.” NYT on collapsing fish stocks in the South Pacific. In Mackerel's Plunder, Hints of Epic Fish Collapse Related articles In Mackerel's Plunder, Hints of Epic Fish Collapse (nytimes.com)
Science communication and conservative values
Roger Scruton's recent article in Prospect Magazine provides an interesting illustration of what Dan Kahn and Chris Mooney have been discussing on their respective blogs. (Kahn blogs regularly now at the Cultural Cognition Project and Mooney writes at the Desmog Blog.) The topic of their discussion: Is it possible to take the polemics out of … Continue reading Science communication and conservative values
How to beat the odds and escape your fate
We hate it when things that are supposed to be random actually turn out not to be. But on reflection it's not quite that simple. We like random events to be random in entirely predictable ways. The 'Fatalism' quadrant of Grid-Group Cultural Theory includes random activity as a key aspect of social organisation. But it … Continue reading How to beat the odds and escape your fate
L’analyse culturelle de Mary Douglas
- une contribution à la sociologie des institutions. Here's a good summary of Mary Douglas's Cultural Theory written in French (with an English abstract). It was published in SociologieS in 2006. Marcel Calvez, « L’analyse culturelle de Mary Douglas : une contribution à la sociologie des institutions », SociologieS [En ligne], Théories et recherches, mis … Continue reading L’analyse culturelle de Mary Douglas
A Cultural Theory of Cricket?
Cricket emerged in a particular social and cultural context. What might this history have to tell us about the present match-fixing crisis?
Excommunicating Women priests
Just about to write something about the recent restatement of the Catholic Church's opposition to the ordination of women - I realised, effectively, I already had. Add only this: it's not actually very easy to be excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Few people have ever met anyone who has been (militant atheists have been … Continue reading Excommunicating Women priests
Cultural Theory and the Open Society
Catriona Kelly, Professor of Russian at Oxford Universty, has written an article about the concept of freedom in the context of Soviet and post-Soviet politics. She takes issue with the two-sidedness that pits the open society against the closed society, finding in Grid-Group Cultural Theory a helpful and illuminating alternative. ''The "open society" to which … Continue reading Cultural Theory and the Open Society
Four Cultures 