http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory A reading group set up initially by the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization doctoral students to discuss cultural theory texts Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:06:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yesterday, we had the second session of the governance discussion group, and invited Dr. Michael Thompson. He kicked off the session with the story of Arsenal Football Club. In this story, Arsenal (market actor), the City Council (hierarchy actor), and local residents (egalitarian actor) were negotiating on expansion/re-location of the Highbury ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2008/07/25/governance-dg-with-dr-michael-thompson/ Yesterday, we had the first session for the governance discussion group. We invited Dr. Jill Jaeger and discussed about how scenario can help governance. The first step to write a scenario is brainstorming. You need to identify 'critical uncertainties' in the issue you are looking at. Then, you develop different stories ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2008/07/18/governance-dg-with-dr-jill-jaeger/ Hi, At IIASA, Austria, I am organizing a discussion group of governance. The aim is not to hold entirely CT based discussions, but to see how the notion of governance involves in academic research and what are the tools used in such research contexts. CT is definitely one of the tools, ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2008/07/01/iiasa-governance-discussion-group/ Hallo all. I had lunch today with Marco Verweij, and we discussed pedagogy. Can anyone come up with an excerpt (i.e. 2-3 pages) of a well-known literary work that might be used as a basis for a discussion about CT. This would involve a clearly defined issue, and 4 separate ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2008/06/25/teaching-ct-with-fiction/ Steven visited the James Martin Institute last Monday, and we had a great opportunity to listen to his presentation as well as to have a small meeting session with him. He kindly commented on Sam's and my concerns about our own research. Here, I shall pick some points relevant for the ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2007/05/16/steven-ney/ Today we discussed "Political Cultures", Part 3 of Cultural Theory by Thompson, Ellis, and Wildavsky.  Mike Thompson was able to join us, and I video-ed in from Washington.Part 3 is largely an attempt to resurrect the idea of 'political culture' from it's demise in the 1970s.  The first question, then, ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2007/02/01/reading-group-meeting-cultural-theory-part-3/ This week's CT reading group was more about what Cultural Theory can deal with and how we can understand it rather than the book 'Cultural Theory'. There are two main questions; - Based on social constructivism, how can we understand the words/terms/concepts used in arguments. For ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2007/01/23/ct-reading-group-23jan07/ The following is a summary of the discussion we had on this week’s reading: “Cultural Theory” by Thompson, Ellis and Wildavsky. The session started with an overview by Mike of the three analytical levels supporting Cultural Theory: social relations, cultural biases and relational strategies. Human beings can transact in ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2007/01/04/cultural-theory-reading-group-03012007/ This meeting: Natural Symbols by Mary Douglas Next Meeting: 3 January 2007, Cultural Theory by Thompson, Ellis, and Wildavsky This week's reading was Natural Symbols by Mary Douglas. It forms the backbone of grid-group analysis, which was used to develop Cultural Theory. Douglas' intention with the book ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2006/12/22/meeting-18-dec-06-natural-symbols/ The meeting discussed the Grid/Group typology introduced by Mary Douglas in Chapter nine of her book ‚Äúin the active voice‚Äù; ‚ÄòCultural bias‚Äô. The typology opposes the dimension of individuation to that of social incorporation. ‚ÄòGrid‚Äô refers to the rules to which individuals are subject in the course of their interactions ... http://ponderingmind.org/cultural_theory/2006/12/12/first-meeting-tue-12-12-2006/