Research Catalog

Title

Risk and blame : essays in cultural theory / Mary Douglas.

Author

Douglas, Mary, 1921-2007

Publication

London ; New York : Routledge, 1992.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 323 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

The idea of risk has recently risen to prominence in political debate and in matters of public policy. Cognitive psychology treats decision-making as a private personal act. But in real life dangers are presented in standardized forms which pre-code the individual's choices. This collection follows on from the programme for studying risk and blame that was implied in Purity and Danger and has been developed in subsequent publications. Its first six essays argue that any analysis of risk perception that ignores cultural and political bias is worthless. For the sake of a mistaken idea of objectivity, research on risk perception tries to avoid politics, but the idea of nature is inherently politicized. The study of risk needs a systematic framework of political and cultural comparison. The next five essays range over questions in cultural theory. A culture is viewed as a way of life which standardizes concepts and values. It is held steady by the institutions in which it is articulated. Questions of autonomy, credibility and gullibility, the social origins of wants, and the recognition of distinctive thought styles are at present only beginning to be treated systematically in a framework of cultural analysis. Now that risk is moving centre-stage as the dominant idiom of policy analysis, many other key topics, such as the notion of the self, will need to be radically revised. In Risk and Blame, Mary Douglas argues that the prominence of risk discourse will force upon the social sciences a programme of rethinking and consolidation which will include the anthropological approaches studied in these pages.

Donor/Sponsor

Gift of the Brooke Russell Astor Endowment for Books

Subject

• Risk > Sociological aspects
• Risk perception
• Risk assessment
• Culture
• Risk

Genre/Form

Essays.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Contents

pt. I. Risk and blame -- Risk and blame -- Risk and justice -- Risk and danger -- Muffled ears -- Witchcraft and leprosy : two strategies for rejection -- The self as risk-taker : a cultural theory of contagion in relation to AIDS -- pt. II. Wants and institutions -- The normative debate and the origins of culture -- Wants -- No free gifts : introduction to Mauss's essay on The gift -- Institutions of the third kind : British and Swedish labour markets compared -- Autonomy and opportunism -- pt. III. Believing and thinking -- Thought style exemplified : the idea of the self -- Credibility -- A credible biosphere -- The debate on women priests -- The Hotel Kwilu : a model of models.

Call Number

JFD 92-12200

ISBN

• 0415062802
• 9780415062800

LCCN

91036366

OCLC

24590430

Author

Douglas, Mary, 1921-2007, author.

Title

Risk and blame : essays in cultural theory / Mary Douglas.

Imprint

London ; New York : Routledge, 1992.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Connect to:

Table of contents

Table of contents

Research Call Number

JFD 92-12200