Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the WorstUniversity of Chicago Press, 15.9.2008 - 336 sivua People—especially Americans—are by and large optimists. They're much better at imagining best-case scenarios (I could win the lottery!) than worst-case scenarios (A hurricane could destroy my neighborhood!). This is true not just of their approach to imagining the future, but of their memories as well: people are better able to describe the best moments of their lives than they are the worst. “In Never Saw It Coming, Karen Cerulo argues that in American society there is a ‘positive symmetry,’ a tendency to focus on and exaggerate the best, the winner, the most optimistic outcome and outlook. Thus, the conceptions of the worst are underdeveloped and elided. Naturally, as she masterfully outlines, there are dramatic consequences to this characterological inability to imagine and prepare for the worst, as the failure to heed memos leading up to both the 9/11 and NASA Challenger disasters, for instance, so painfully reminded us.”--Robin Wagner-Pacifici, Swarthmore College “Katrina, 9/11, and the War in Iraq—all demonstrate the costliness of failing to anticipate worst-case scenarios. Never Saw It Coming explains why it is so hard to do so: adaptive behavior hard-wired into human cognition is complemented and reinforced by cultural practices, which are in turn institutionalized in the rules and structures of formal organizations. But Karen Cerulo doesn’t just diagnose the problem; she uses case studies of settings in which people effectively anticipate and deal with potential disaster to describe structural solutions to the chronic dilemmas she describes so well. Never Saw It Coming is a powerful contribution to the emerging fields of cognitive and moral sociology.”--Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University |
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Tulokset 1 - 5 kokonaismäärästä 85
... Figure 1.1 presents a visual depiction of graded membership in practice . The figure suggests that in evaluating input , the brain makes use of a rather unique quality continuum . The continuum contains two poles : the best example and ...
... figures on intergenerational elasticity and intergenerational mobil- ity suggest that the majority of male American workers are not “ doing bet- ter ” than their fathers . Our economic reality contradicts the ideals of the American ...
... figures on pregnancy , U.S. teen- agers have higher STD rates than teens in most developed countries ( such as Canada , England , France , and Sweden ) . But despite the prevalence of STDs , only about half of American teens consider ...
... figures double.) The median income for U.S. households is about $42,000. However, for those sixty-five and over, that figure drops to about $34,000. Further, approx- imately 10 percent of older households live below the poverty line ...
... figures, well over a fourth of Americans fail to use their seat belts.102 In fact, two-thirds of those killed in auto accidents were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of impact. Why, one might ask, are drivers and passengers so blind ...
Sisältö
1 | |
17 | |
3 Practicing Positive Asymmetry | 72 |
4 Positive Asymmetry and the Subjective Side of Scientific Measurement | 122 |
5 Being Labeled the Worst Real in Its Consequences? | 139 |
6 Exceptions to the Rule | 164 |
7 Emancipating Structures and Cognitive Styles | 193 |
8 Can Symmetrical Vision Be Achieved? | 233 |
Acknowledgments | 344 |
1 Whats the Worst That Could Happen? | 1 |
2 The Breadth and Scope of Positive Asymmetry | 17 |
3 Practicing Positive Asymmetry | 72 |
4 Positive Asymmetry and the Subjective Side of Scientific Measurement | 122 |
5 Being Labeled the Worst Real in Its Consequences? | 139 |
6 Exceptions to the Rule | 164 |
7 Emancipating Structures and Cognitive Styles | 193 |
Notes | 245 |
References | 279 |
Index | 315 |
Contents | 342 |
8 Can Symmetrical Vision Be Achieved? | 233 |
Notes | 245 |
References | 279 |
Index | 315 |
Muita painoksia - Näytä kaikki
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Rajoitettu esikatselu - 2008 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Esikatselu ei käytettävissä - 2006 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Esikatselu ei käytettävissä - 2006 |