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 79
... failed me. I had additional surgeries and underwent specialized treatment strategies. I had what seemed like endless tests and took a battery of prescribed medi- cations—each with its own brand of difficult side effects. Through it all ...
... failures of imagination — failures that traverse a variety of social profiles and socio- cultural settings — really be ... fail to foresee the very worst reactions of troubled students . 15 It happens when couples or newlyweds plan their ...
... failed to stop hijacker Mohamed Atta from entering the United States despite the fact that he had known ties to terrorists and was using an expired visa. Similarly, the FAA, neglecting its own warnings, failed to investigate hijackers ...
... fail to imagine what the danger is. [You] fail to understand the world we live in and the nature of the enemy.7 Several months later, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman made a similar observation: The failure to prevent September ...
... fail in love , love did not die — the worst never occurred . Rather , a failed relationship indicated that love was not truly present.17 The positive asymmetry of romantic vision is perhaps best articulated in the work of sociologist ...
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 |