Download or read book Rational Ritual written by Michael Suk-Young Chwe and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-28 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Why do beer commercials dominate Super Bowl advertising? How do political ceremonies establish authority? Why were circular forms favored for public festivals during the French Revolution? This book answers these questions using a single concept: common knowledge. Game theory shows that in order to coordinate its actions, a group of people must form "common knowledge." Each person wants to participate only if others also participate. Members must have knowledge of each other, knowledge of that knowledge, and so on. Michael Chwe applies this insight, with striking erudition, to analyze a range of rituals across history and cultures. He shows that public ceremonies are powerful not simply because they transmit meaning from a central source to each audience member but because they let audience members know what other members know. In a new afterword, Chwe delves into new applications of common knowledge, both in the real world and in experiments, and considers how generating common knowledge has become easier in the digital age." -- From the jacket.
Download or read book Rationality and Ritual written by Brian Wynne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-11-12 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Rationality and Ritual, internationally renowned expert Brian Wynne offers a profound analysis of science and technology policymaking. By focusing on an episode of major importance in Britain's nuclear history – the Windscale Inquiry, a public hearing about the future of fuel reprocessing – he offers a powerful critique of such judicial procedures and the underlying assumptions of the rationalist approach. This second edition makes available again this classic and still very relevant work. Debates about nuclear power have come to the fore once again. Yet we still do not have adequate ways to make decisions or frame policy deliberation on these big issues, involving true public debate, rather than ritualistic processes in which the rules and scope of the debate are presumed and imposed by those in authority. The perspectives in this book are as significant and original as they were when it was written. The new edition contains a substantial introduction by the author reflecting on changes (and lack of) in the intervening years and introducing new themes, relevant to today's world of big science and technology, that can be drawn out of the original text. A new foreword by Gordon MacKerron, an expert on energy and nuclear policy, sets this seminal work in the context of contemporary nuclear and related big technology debates.
Download or read book Rationality and Ritual written by Brian Wynne and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Raindancing written by Glenn Granger and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking book launches a passionate crusade for ‘rational marketing’ – based on facts and data, rather than guesswork, traditions and raindancing. Marketing without measurement is myth. “Until now,” says Glenn Granger, “marketers have been flying blind. Even the big brands that can afford to pay consultants for data modelling and forecasting are only getting snapshots, retrospectively, once or twice a year. And media costs are high, so the numbers can be huge. Nowhere outside marketing are millions invested – or gambled – with so little analysis and scrutiny.” How different would business be if powerful modelling tools that were as easy to use as spreadsheets or word processors could be there on every marketer’s desktop? What if these tools could help with everyday decisions, like whether to take up a media owner’s last-minute 3-for-2 offer, and whether a price cut would be a great move or commercial suicide? Bringing rational accountability to marketing is not about deskilling. It is about giving the marketer a new power to fine tune campaign spending, defend budgets and predict the impact of specific initiatives. Glenn Granger draws on his own high-level consulting and business experience to make the case for this urgently-needed marketing revolution. His upbeat, non-technical style makes Raindancing startling, vivid and vital reading for chief executives, finance directors, CMOs and everyone who works in marketing.
Download or read book Organizational Environments written by John W. Meyer and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Economy and Ritual written by Stephen Gudeman and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2015-02-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to accepted wisdom, rational practices and ritual action are opposed. Rituals drain wealth from capital investment and draw on a mode of thought different from practical ideas. The studies in this volume contest this view. Comparative, historical, and contemporary, the six ethnographies extend from Macedonia to Kyrgyzstan. Each one illuminates the economic and ritual changes in an area as it emerged from socialism and (re-)entered market society. Cutting against the idea that economy only means markets and that market action exhausts the meaning of economy, the studies show that much of what is critical for a people’s economic life takes place outside markets and hinges on ritual, understood as the negation of the everyday world of economising.
Download or read book Jane Austen Game Theorist written by Michael Suk-Young Chwe and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-03-23 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the works of Jane Austen show that game theory is present in all human behavior Game theory—the study of how people make choices while interacting with others—is one of the most popular technical approaches in social science today. But as Michael Chwe reveals in his insightful new book, Jane Austen explored game theory's core ideas in her six novels roughly two hundred years ago—over a century before its mathematical development during the Cold War. Jane Austen, Game Theorist shows how this beloved writer theorized choice and preferences, prized strategic thinking, and analyzed why superiors are often strategically clueless about inferiors. Exploring a diverse range of literature and folktales, this book illustrates the wide relevance of game theory and how, fundamentally, we are all strategic thinkers.
Download or read book Ritual A Very Short Introduction written by Barry Stephenson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-01-28 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ritual is part of what it means to be human. Like sports, music, and drama, ritual defines and enriches culture, putting those who practice it in touch with sources of value and meaning larger than themselves. Ritual is unavoidable, yet it holds a place in modern life that is decidedly ambiguous. What is ritual? What does it do? Is it useful? What are the various kinds of ritual? Is ritual tradition bound and conservative or innovative and transformational? Alongside description of a number of specific rites, this Very Short Introduction explores ritual from both theoretical and historical perspectives. Barry Stephenson focuses on the places where ritual touches everyday life: in politics and power; moments of transformation in the life cycle; as performance and embodiment. He also discusses the boundaries of ritual, and how and why certain behaviors have been studied as ritual while others have not. Stephenson shows how ritual is an important vehicle for group and identity formation; how it generates and transmits beliefs and values; how it can be used to exploit and oppress; and how it has served as a touchstone for thinking about cultural origins and historical change. Encompassing the breadth and depth of modern ritual studies, Barry Stephenson's Very Short Introduction also develops a narrative of ritual's place in social and cultural life. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book The Archaeology of Ritual written by Evangelos Kyriakidis and published by Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. This book was released on 2007-12-31 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A wide spectrum of scholars, historians, art historians, anthropologists, students of performance, students of religion, archaeologists, cognitive scientists, and linguists were all asked to think and comment on how ritual can be traced in archaeology and which ways ritual research can go in that discipline. The product is a fairly accurate representation of research on ritual and the archaeology of ritual: scholars from various disciplines, backgrounds and agendas, arguing mostly in the most logical fashion, yet with little agreement between them. So this book should not be seen as presenting one unified attitude towards ritual and its study in archaeology. It should rather be seen as a reflection of what the discourse in the archaeology of ritual is today. The outcome has been extremely thought-provoking, often controversial, but always of extremely high quality.
Download or read book Savage Energies written by Walter Burkert and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001-04 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We often think of classical Greek society as a model of rationality and order. Yet as Walter Burkert demonstrates in these influential essays on the history of Greek religion, there were archaic, savage forces surging beneath the outwardly calm face of classical Greece, whose potentially violent and destructive energies, Burkert argues, were harnessed to constructive ends through the interlinked uses of myth and ritual. For example, in a much-cited essay on the Athenian religious festival of the Arrephoria, Burkert uncovers deep connections between this strange nocturnal ritual, in which two virgin girls carried sacred offerings into a cave and later returned with something given to them there, and tribal puberty initiations by linking the festival with the myth of the daughters of Kekrops. Other chapters explore the origins of tragedy in blood sacrifice; the role of myth in the ritual of the new fire on Lemnos; the ties between violence, the Athenian courts, and the annual purification of the divine image; and how failed political propaganda entered the realm of myth at the time of the Persian Wars.
Download or read book Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning written by Geir Sigurðsson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2015-01-08 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reconsideration of the Confucian concept li (ritual or ritual propriety), one that references Western philosophers as well as the Chinese context. Geir Sigurðsson offers a reconsideration of li, often translated as ritual or ritual propriety, one of the most controversial concepts in Confucian philosophy. Strong associations with the Zhou period during which Confucius lived have put this concept at odds with modernitys emphasis on progressive rationality and liberation from the yoke of tradition. Sigurðsson notes how the Confucian perspective on learning provides a more balanced understanding of li. He goes on to discuss the limitations of the critique of tradition and of rationalitys claim to authority, referencing several Western sources, notably Hans-Georg Gadamer, John Dewey, and Pierre Bourdieu. An exposition of the ancient Chinese worldview of time and continuous change further points to the inevitability of lis adaptable and flexible nature. Sigurðsson argues that Confucius and his immediate followers did not endorse a program of returning to the Zhou tradition, but rather of reviving the spirit of Zhou culture, involving active and personalized participation in traditions sustention and evolution.
Download or read book Interaction Ritual Chains written by Randall Collins and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex, smoking, and social stratification are three very different social phenomena. And yet, argues sociologist Randall Collins, they and much else in our social lives are driven by a common force: interaction rituals. Interaction Ritual Chains is a major work of sociological theory that attempts to develop a "radical microsociology." It proposes that successful rituals create symbols of group membership and pump up individuals with emotional energy, while failed rituals drain emotional energy. Each person flows from situation to situation, drawn to those interactions where their cultural capital gives them the best emotional energy payoff. Thinking, too, can be explained by the internalization of conversations within the flow of situations; individual selves are thoroughly and continually social, constructed from the outside in. The first half of Interaction Ritual Chains is based on the classic analyses of Durkheim, Mead, and Goffman and draws on micro-sociological research on conversation, bodily rhythms, emotions, and intellectual creativity. The second half discusses how such activities as sex, smoking, and social stratification are shaped by interaction ritual chains. For example, the book addresses the emotional and symbolic nature of sexual exchanges of all sorts--from hand-holding to masturbation to sexual relationships with prostitutes--while describing the interaction rituals they involve. This book will appeal not only to psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, but to those in fields as diverse as human sexuality, religious studies, and literary theory.
Download or read book Summary of Rational Ritual Review Keypoints and Take aways written by PenZen Summaries and published by by Mocktime Publication. This book was released on 2022-11-27 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The summary of Rational Ritual – Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge presented here include a short review of the book at the start followed by quick overview of main points and a list of important take-aways at the end of the summary. The Summary of A profound examination of the function that rituals, ceremonies, and media events play in modern society from the perspective of game theory is provided in the book Rational Ritual . These rites have been practised throughout the ages in order to develop a "common knowledge" that enables people to find solutions to problems such as determining which ruler to obey and which goods to purchase. Essential reading for budding Robespierres or Steve Jobses alike. Rational Ritual summary includes the key points and important takeaways from the book Rational Ritual by Michael Suk-Young Chwe. Disclaimer: 1. This summary is meant to preview and not to substitute the original book. 2. We recommend, for in-depth study purchase the excellent original book. 3. In this summary key points are rewritten and recreated and no part/text is directly taken or copied from original book. 4. If original author/publisher wants us to remove this summary, please contact us at [email protected].
Download or read book Considering the Rationality of African Ritual Behavior written by Joel Grant Mort and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engagement in ritual acts is, from a scientific point of view, a surprising feature of human behavior given the commitment to counterfactual worlds. As such, why people engage in ritual acts has preoccupied many scholars in the history of anthropology. These scholars have engaged in the Rationality Debate; the goal of which is to determine standards that should be used to make judgments about the rationality of human behavior. While ritual behavior might be ineffective for the achievement of purported goals and fail to conform to principles of reasoning based on rules of logic, the simple fact that this behavior is widespread, transmitted in a stable fashion, and the result (at least indirectly) of evolutionary processes suggests that considering its rationality or lack thereof is largely irrelevant. The question is no longer 'if' ritual behavior is rational but rather 'why' this behavior is consistently exhibited. I argue that in order to answer this question anthropologists and religious studies scholars ultimately depend on heuristics recast as postulated entities. These are conceived as causal variable(s) governing patterned human behavior and consequently circle back and affirm a fallacious Durkheimian description of ritual behavior. This is a major and fundamental flaw in the current anthropological and religious studies research tradition and a new fractionated approach to understanding ritual within the research tradition of the natural sciences in general and cognitive science in particular is needed.
Download or read book The Year of Living Biblically written by A. J. Jacobs and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-09-09 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of The Know-It-All takes on history's most influential book.
Download or read book Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity written by Roy A. Rappaport and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-03-25 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roy Rappaport argues that religion is central to the continuing evolution of life, although it has been been displaced from its original position of intellectual authority by the rise of modern science. His book, which could be construed as in some degree religious as well as about religion, insists that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining adaptive and cognitive approaches to the study of humankind, he mounts a comprehensive analysis of religion's evolutionary significance, seeing it as co-extensive with the invention of language and hence of culture as we know it. At the same time he assembles the fullest study yet of religion's main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions which we take to be religious and has been central in the making of humanity's adaptation. The text amounts to a manual for effective ritual, illustrated by examples drawn from anthropology, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and elsewhere.
Download or read book A Rational of the Ritual of the Hebrew Worship written by Moses Lowman and published by . This book was released on 1816 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
