A Pluralistic Model of Culture

Schwartz, Barry; Thompson, Michael J.; Ellis, Richard J.; Wíldavsky, Aaron

doi:10.2307/2072250

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Each way of organizing and perceiving: (1) distils certain elements of experience and wisdom that are missed by the others; (2) provides a clear expression of the way in which a significant portion of the populace feels we should live with one another and with nature; and (3) needs all the others in order to be sustainable. As Barry Schwartz (1991, p. 765) put it:…”

Section: The Theory Of Socio‐cultural Viabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change

Verweij¹,

Douglas²,

Ellis³

et al. 2006

Public Administration

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306

305

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Successful solutions to pressing social ills tend to consist of innovative combinations of a limited set of alternative ways of perceiving and resolving the issues. These contending policy perspectives justify, represent and stem from four different ways of organizing social relations: hierarchy, individualism, egalitarianism and fatalism. Each of these perspectives: (1) distils certain elements of experience and wisdom that are missed by the others;(2) provides a clear expression of the way in which a signifi cant portion of the populace feels we should live with one another and with nature; and (3) needs all of the others in order to be sustainable. ' Clumsy solutions ' -policies that creatively combine all opposing perspectives on what the problems are and how they should be resolved -are therefore called for. We illustrate these claims for the issue of global warming.Most climatologists agree that by burning fossil fuels and engaging in other forms of consumption and production we are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases that fl oat around in the atmosphere. These gases, in trapping some of the sun ' s heat, warm the earth and enable life. The trouble is,

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Section: The Theory Of Socio‐cultural Viabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change

Verweij¹,

Douglas²,

Ellis³

et al. 2006

Public Administration

Self Cite

306

305

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Change is conceptualized in cultural theory as the endless waxing and waning, as well as fusion and fission, of all ways of life within a social domain (Thompson 2008). In a review, Barry Schwartz (1991:765) put it as follows:Each way of life undermines itself. Individualism would mean chaos without hierarchical authority to enforce contracts and repel enemies.…”

Section: Grid-group Typology and The Theory Of Sociocultural Viabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Four Galore? The Overlap between Mary Douglas’s Grid-Group Typology and Other Highly Cited Social Science Classifications

Verweij

Alexandrova²,

Jacobsen

et al. 2020

Sociological Theory

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Recently, neuroscientists have argued that elementary ways of organizing, perceiving, and justifying social relations lurk behind the diversity of social life. In developing grid-group typology, anthropologist Mary Douglas proposed such universal forms. If these are universal, then we could expect other widely cited classifications to overlap with grid-group typology. We tested this expectation by examining to which extent the elements of Douglas’s typology overlap with those of 39 highly influential classifications proposed since 1970. We established overlap by calculating the interrater agreement among 11 coders. Fair to good interrater agreement, despite a complex coding exercise and minimal training, suggests that such overlap exists. Nevertheless, limits to our research design call for further studies. These findings should contribute to a rekindling of the question whether universal forms of organizing and perceiving social relations exist and to a further consideration of whether Douglas has managed to uncover these.

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“…Individual interests are subjected to the collective good (Thompson et al, 1990) and conflicts can only be solved by applying legitimate rules. This organisational culture could, however, lead to rule-fetishism (Schwartz, 1991) when it is not combined with the other three types.…”

Section: Two Dimensions Four Organisational Formsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police-public interactions: a grid-group cultural theory perspective

Loyens

Maesschalck

2014

Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies &Amp; Management

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Purpose – The police culture literature suggests that police officers’ attitude towards the public is characterised by suspicion and an “us-vs-them” mentality. It also refers to the moral mission of protecting the public by being tough on crime. The traditional police culture model seems to imply that these aspects are typical for the police. There is, however, a lack of empirical studies to test this proposition. The purpose of this paper is to propose a different conceptual framework, based on grid-group cultural theory (GGCT), which not only broadens the lens of the police culture model, but also allows for comparative research between different professional groups. Design/methodology/approach – The newly developed conceptual framework is tested in an ethnographic study in the Belgian police and labour inspection. The main data collection methods are observation, interview and informal conversation. Findings – The results of this study show that there are similarities in the way in which Belgian police officers and labour inspectors interact with the public, which raises interesting questions concerning the (often implicit) claim of the police culture literature concerning the specificity of police culture. Research limitations/implications – More research is needed to gain deeper insight into similarities and differences of the occupational culture in the police and comparable professional groups. GGCT offers a useful conceptual framework for such a research agenda. Originality/value – This paper addresses a number of criticisms against the classic police culture model and provides an innovative perspective to not only study aspects of police culture, but also compare the police with other professions.

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A Pluralistic Model of Culture

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change

Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change

Four Galore? The Overlap between Mary Douglas’s Grid-Group Typology and Other Highly Cited Social Science Classifications

Police-public interactions: a grid-group cultural theory perspective

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