Cultural Theory

As an interdisciplinary science and technology studies graduate student, I find this book indispensible for investigations into policy, risk, scientific practice, formation of preferences, the role of surprise in everyday life, and any other social science research. If you think social anthropologist Mary Douglas has worthwhile points in any of her numerous works, this book is for you. If you're into Durkheim, Weber, and/or Marx, this book is for you. In short, if you're reading this review, this book is for you.

"Theory," wrote philosopher George Santayana, "helps us to bear our ignorance of fact." Theory illuminates and instructs, it is a lens through which one may look forward while also reflecting on the past. Theory lets us comprehend rather than simply to apprehend.In "Cultural Theory," Michael Thompson, Richard Ellis and the late Aaron Wildavsky have taken a measurable step forward in understanding sociocultural viability. They do not argue one or the other competiting views of culture--i.e., mental products (values, beliefs, norms, ideologies) vice the total way of life of a people. They focus on three areas: cultural biases, social relations, and ways of life. The result is a "grid-group" typology, which is at the heart of cultural theory."Group" refers to the extent to which an individual is incorporated into well defined units. "Grid" is the degree to which an individual's life is circumscribed by externally imposed perscriptions. These two dimensions of sociality are used to show the relationship between five "ways of life" of people: hierarchy (strong group/strong grid), egalitarianism (strong group/weak grid), individualism (weak group/weak grid), fatalism (weak group/strong grid), and autonomy (null group/null grid). The authors defend why these five ways of life are the only viable ones."The causal mechanism driving cultural theory's predictions of who will want what, when and why," the authors write, "is that as people organize so they will behave." It is the combination of the experience of well defined social units (group) and the pervasiveness of rules which relate one person to another on an ego-centered basis (grid) that leads people who organize themselves in one of the viable ways of life to seek the objectives they do."Cultural Theory" is not a quick read, nor should it be, and it is not a work that most people will want to tackle, much less to read and wax philosophic. But for those who are interested in human factors--the "soft factors" in military models and simulations, for example--"Cultural Theory" offers a portal of understanding that is indispensable to further analysis.One possible application of cultural theory is to apply its constructs as a framework to understand the frictions and conflicts between different groups in troubled states--places where peacekeepers, the military and aid workers are likely to be sent, and where a checklist to help organize operations to mitigate, respond and recover from social disintegration would be helpful to senior leaders. Thus it is possible that cultural theory could provide a starting point for real world solutions to resolving conflict.