Theory of Culture Change PDF Download

Author: Julian Haynes Steward
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252002953
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

View

Book Description
p.122-142 mentions Australian patrilineal bands.

Author: Alexander M Ervin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131726178X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

View

Book Description
Change is the most significant factor of contemporary society and humanity s past. This book represents the first substantial attempt since the 1970s to synthesize and critique sociocultural change theories in anthropology and relate them to trends in the social and physical sciences. It emphasizes the most recent contributions especially complexity and emergence theory, social movements, network analysis, and globalization. Ervin presents a rich legacy of theories and case studies accessible to both the established scholar and the beginning student. He considers how theories and insights can inform policy as humanity faces crises of globalization.Key Features of the Text Designed for scholars and students seeking a comprehensive analysis of the relation between anthropological theory and practice. Assesses big questions facing the social sciences: Do cultures and societies change or is it really individuals, families, and social networks? Are there prime movers of change environment, technology, economics, ideas, powerful leaders, or cultural contacts? Are there structures embedded within changes and changes built into structures? Original contribution of the book is the integration of sociological and anthropological theories, including networks, social movements, complexity, world systems, etc. Online appendices include resources for students on applied and practice anthropology."

Author: Mike Featherstone
Publisher: Sage Publications (CA)
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

View

Book Description
Recent years have seen a significant reappraisal of the idea of culture within the social sciences, and a growing integration of theoretical concerns between the social sciences and the humanities. Debates over concepts such as postmodernism and cultural globalization have been symptomatic of a broader interdisciplinary interest in the social context of cultural practice. In this book an international cast of eminent theorists examines a series of key questions on the borders of the cultural and the social. Ranging across a broad canvas, the contributors focus on different elements of cultural theory and cultural process: discourse, lifestyle, the emotions, the intelligentsia, social movements, postmodernism. Linking the chapters is a concern with the central role of European social theory in the current reappraisal of culture, and an assessment of its relation to other international traditions. This book, for an interdisciplinary readership, will serve as an outline of key concerns in cultural theory and an insight into the central insights of Theory, Culture and Society. The book is also published as issue 9.1 of Theory, Culture and Society.

Author: Catherine Itzen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134832613
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 352

View

Book Description
An engaging contribution to the increasing body of knowledge about gender and organizations, Gender, Culture and Organizational Change examines gender-based inequality in organizations and considers how sexual and social relations between women and men based on sexuality, power and control determine the cultures, structures and practices of organization and the experiences of men and women working in them. Gender, Culture and Organizational Change represents a decade of experience of managing change and implementing theory in public sector organizations during a period of major social, political and economic transition and analyses the progress that has been made. It expands to make wider connections with women and trade unions in Europe and management development for women in the "developing" countries of Africa and Asia. It will be valuable reading for students in social policy, gender studies and sociology and for professionals with an interest in understanding the dynamics of the workplace.

Author: Günter Dux
Publisher: transcript Verlag
ISBN: 3839415136
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 415

View

Book Description
The book focuses on the modern understanding of human life-forms as constructs that followed an evolutionary history. The author thus finds science confronted with two questions: firstly, how the transgression of the virtual threshold between natural and cultural history was possible, secondly, how the socio-cultural constructs were able to develop in the course of history the way they did. The discussion concentrates on the problem of determining a processual logic in the development of societal structures as well as in the development of cognition. The focus of attention is the historico-genetic reconstruction of cognition. The book was originally published in German as »Historisch-genetische Theorie der Kultur« (Weilerswist 2000: Velbrück).

Author: Alex Mesoudi
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226520455
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

View

Book Description
Charles Darwin changed the course of scientific thinking by showing how evolution accounts for the stunning diversity and biological complexity of life on earth. Recently, there has also been increased interest in the social sciences in how Darwinian theory can explain human culture. Covering a wide range of topics, including fads, public policy, the spread of religion, and herd behavior in markets, Alex Mesoudi shows that human culture is itself an evolutionary process that exhibits the key Darwinian mechanisms of variation, competition, and inheritance. This cross-disciplinary volume focuses on the ways cultural phenomena can be studied scientifically—from theoretical modeling to lab experiments, archaeological fieldwork to ethnographic studies—and shows how apparently disparate methods can complement one another to the mutual benefit of the various social science disciplines. Along the way, the book reveals how new insights arise from looking at culture from an evolutionary angle. Cultural Evolution provides a thought-provoking argument that Darwinian evolutionary theory can both unify different branches of inquiry and enhance understanding of human behavior.

Author: J. M. Balkin
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300084504
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 354

View

Book Description
In this book J. M. Balkin offers a strikingly original theory of cultural evolution, a theory that explains shared understandings, disagreement, and diversity within cultures. Drawing on many fields of study--including anthropology, evolutionary theory, cognitive science, linguistics, sociology, political theory, philosophy, social psychology, and law--the author explores how cultures grow and spread, how shared understandings arise, and how people of different cultures can understand and evaluate each other's views. Cultural evolution occurs through the transmission of cultural information and know-how--cultural software--in human minds, Balkin says. Individuals embody cultural software and spread it to others through communication and social learning. Ideology, the author contends, is neither a special nor a pathological form of thought but an ordinary product of the evolution of cultural software. Because cultural understanding is a patchwork of older imperfect tools that are continually adapted to solve new problems, human understanding is partly adequate and partly inadequate to the pursuit of justice. Balkin presents numerous examples that illuminate the sources of ideological effects and their contributions to injustice. He also enters the current debate over multiculturalism, applying his theory to problems of mutual understanding between people who hold different worldviews. He argues that cultural understanding presupposes transcendent ideals and shows how both ideological analysis of others and ideological self-criticism are possible.

Author: Julian Haynes Steward
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Culture
Languages : en
Pages : 244

View

Book Description

Author: James McCalman
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
ISBN: 0749473045
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 241

View

Book Description
With coverage of the major theories and concepts alongside diagnostic tools and a practical framework for implementation, Leading Cultural Change will help the reader analyse and diagnose their current organizational culture, become aware of the key challenges and how to overcome them and learn how to adapt their leadership style, ensuring they are fit to lead a cultural change programme. Taking in core topics such as change context, language and dialogue as a key cultural process and the change team process, it uses a longitudinal case study of Cordia, a public sector organization transitioning into an LLP, to enhance learning and understanding. Leading Cultural Change is a unique text, rooted in behavioural sciences, which explores the topic as an organizational necessity to achieving sustained competitive advantage.

Author: Michael Thompson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429980817
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 285

View

Book Description
Why do people want what they want? Why does one person see the world as a place to control, while another feels controlled by the world? A useful theory of culture, the authors contend, should start with these questions, and the answers, given different historical conditions, should apply equally well to people of all times, places, and walks of life.Taking their cue from the pioneering work of anthropologist Mary Douglas, the authors of Cultural Theory have created a typology of five ways of life?egalitarianism, fatalism, individualism, hierarchy, and autonomy?to serve as an analytic tool in examining people, culture, and politics. They then show how cultural theorists can develop large numbers of falsifiable propositions.Drawing on parables, poetry, case studies, fiction, and the Great Books, the authors illustrate how cultural biases and social relationships interact in particular ways to yield life patterns that are viable, sustainable, and ultimately, changeable under certain conditions. Figures throughout the book show the dynamic quality of these ways of life and specifically illustrate the role of surprise in effecting small- and large-scale change.The authors compare Cultural Theory with the thought of master social theorists from Montesquieu to Stinchcombe and then reanalyze the classic works in the political culture tradition from Almond and Verba to Pye. Demonstrating that there is more to social life than hierarchy and individualism, the authors offer evidence from earlier studies showing that the addition of egalitarianism and fatalism facilitates cross-national comparisons.