The Faithful Disciple: On Mary Douglas and Durkheim

Fardon, Richard

doi:10.2307/3032886

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Originating in the structural sociology of Émile Durkheim ([1912] 1995), grid/group analysis developed through Douglas's field work in Africa (Douglas, 1966, 1978, 1982a) and a variety of other influences (Fardon, 1987, 1999, 2010; 6 & Richards, 2017). Grid/group analysis identified two important dimensions of social relations: “grid” for the extent to which relations were prescribed (e.g., what you can do in a given social situation is determined by your rank, role, gender, or other critical attribute, rather than by your individual preferences or decisions), “group” for the extent to which relational patterns were bounded (“us” vs. “them”).…”

Section: What Is Ct?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Theory's Contributions to Risk Analysis: A Thematic Review with Directions and Resources for Further Research

Johnson

Swedlow

2019

Risk Analysis

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Cultural theory (CT) developed from grid/group analysis, which posits that different patterns of social relations—hierarchist, individualist, egalitarian, and fatalist—produce compatible cultural biases influencing assessment of which hazards pose high or low risk and how to manage them. Introduced to risk analysis (RA) in 1982 by Douglas and Wildavsky's Risk and Culture, this institutional approach to social construction of risk surprised a field hitherto focused on psychological influences on risk perceptions and behavior. We explain what CT is and how it developed; describe and evaluate its contributions to the study of risk perception and management, and its prescriptions for risk assessment and management; and identify opportunities and resources to develop its contributions to RA. We suggest how the diverse, fruitful, but scattered efforts to develop CT both inside and outside the formal discipline of RA (as exemplified by the Society for Risk Analysis) might be leveraged for greater theoretical, methodological, and applied progress in the field.

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Section: What Is Ct?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Theory's Contributions to Risk Analysis: A Thematic Review with Directions and Resources for Further Research

Johnson

Swedlow

2019

Risk Analysis

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“…British anthropologist Mary Douglas is no stranger to consumer research of a sociocultural bent. Faithfully building on sociologist Emile Durkheim's ideas (Fardon, 1987) and with regular ventures into the terrain of psychoanalysis (Douglas, 1975), Douglas has sought to apply insights from premodern societies to understanding the contemporary world. Her insights continue to be germane and illuminating within consumer research, in studies of domestic tidiness (Dion et al, 2014), cleanliness and laundering practices (Ger and Yenicioglu, 2004;Neves, 2004), the management of possessions (Hirschman et al, 2012) and marketplace metaphors (Hirschman, 2007).…”

Section: The Dangers Of Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘So much choice and no choice at all’

Nixon

Gabriel

2015

Marketing Theory

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Psychoanalytic concepts and theory have long served studies of consumption, from exposing unconscious motives to elucidating contemporary consuming desire. Sharing with psychoanalysis an interest in symbolic meanings, anthropological approaches have also contributed to the study of contemporary consumption and social life. In this article, we draw on both Freudian psychoanalysis and Douglas's structural anthropology to examine the field of non-consumption or the 'choice' not to buy. Based on detailed interpretations of interview data, we argue that consuming less at the individual level is not always the result of purposeful acts of ideological, anti-consumption protest or the outward expression of countercultural sentiments. Rather, forms of non-consumption can have deeper psychological origins that are located in a view of consumerism as a threatening force and a potent source of toxic contamination to mind and body, 'dirt' in Douglas's conceptualization. We argue that this outlook prompts a constant vigilance and the deployment of different defensive measures, prohibitions and purification rituals akin to Freud's conceptualization of the obsessivecompulsive individual. In this way, our analysis seeks to illuminate the myriad of largely invisible ways in which some people 'choose' not to buy within an ostensibly consumer culture or dismiss the idea of such a choice altogether.

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“…Douglas (1982c:1) took a similarly bold step by claiming her grid-group typology (consisting of three ways of life that are humane in the eyes of their adherents as well as fatalism) captured "the wisdom of a hundred years of sociology, anthropology and psychology." In her search for elementary or fundamental ways of organizing, perceiving, and justifying social relations, Douglas remained Durkheim's "faithful disciple" (Fardon 1987) given that he too had once embarked on such a quest. In the words of Durkheim translator Karen Fields (Durkheim [1912] 1995:ix), "He seeks to explore building blocks of human social life, as physicists explore building blocks of matter.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

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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The Faithful Disciple: On Mary Douglas and Durkheim

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

Cultural Theory's Contributions to Risk Analysis: A Thematic Review with Directions and Resources for Further Research

Cultural Theory's Contributions to Risk Analysis: A Thematic Review with Directions and Resources for Further Research

‘So much choice and no choice at all’

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

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