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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... best of events with a high degree of specificity, their articulations of the worst were both vague and terse. My students are not alone in their confused sense of the worst. In an interesting study of applause and booing, sociologist ...
... best and the worst of people , places , objects , and events , con- ceptions of quality often remain an asymmetrical affair . Durkheim himself , while arguing adamantly for a balanced regulatory scale , had little to say about what ...
Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo. dogs respond ... best-example premise.22 This means that, at their core, concepts amplify or ... Best However , in such cases , the brain 8 chapter one.
Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo. Wond Best However , in such cases , the brain will ... Best - case examples of a concept are overemphasized and highly detailed ; anything less than the ideal becomes ...
... best quality. Overwhelmingly, most thought communities define the best people, places, objects, and events as highly relevant, highly important, and worthy of intense focus. In contrast, most communities relegate the worst to a remote ...
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 |