Anthropological Theory, Cultural Pluralism, and the Study of Complex Societies [and Comments and Reply]

Thinking Crossroads: from Scientific Pluralism to Pluralist History of Science

“…It is difficult not to notice the enthusiasm that has surrounded pluralism in recent years. Beginning with the fields of anthropology and sociology (Despres 1968;Newman 1973;Young 1976), the word "pluralism" has taken hold as an early twenty-first century watchword in domains like political theory (Gatson 2002;Flathman 2005) and legal theory (Krisch 2010). The concept has also entered the philosophical arena, which now acknowledges ontological (Turner 2010), epistemic (Coliva and Pedersen 2017), ethical (Stocker 1991;Kekes 1993), and even logical (Beall and Restall 2006) forms of pluralism.…”

Communities of Creative Practice: Follett's Seminal Conceptualization

“…[27][28][29][30][31] Also, recent pluralist theoretical developments in management have been characterized by an unprecedented influx of critical perspectives emphasizing the growing awareness of participatory power among the stakeholders of an organization. [32][33][34][35][36] This line of research tends to revive the concept of pluralistic forms of organizing focusing on diverse individual and group interests within and outside of an organization or groups of organizations.…”

Ethnic politics in Australia: The social constructions of pluralism

“…Yet according to the anthropologist Despres (1968), fully developed multiculturalism (cultural pluralism), which extends beyond local sections to the national level through 'broker institutions' in any society, would inevitably entail structural and institutional separatism. As examples of this are rare on the world scene, and most certainly cannot be claimed of Australia, such a society can only be called heterogeneous rather than multicultural.…”