Cultures and Crises

Mary Douglas′s literary executor, Richard Fardon, is Professor of West African Anthropology at SOAS, University of London. A former student of Mary Douglas, his intellectual biography of her was published by Routledge in 1999, and updated by a Memoir in the Proceedings of the British Academy Memoir, 2010. Richard Fardon is Professor of West African Anthropology and Head of the Doctoral School at SOAS, University of London. He writes as a social anthropologist and an ethnographer of West Africa with wide interests that include art, intellectual history, religion, politics, and identity.

• Introduction: How Cultures Precipitate Risk and Resolution - Richard Fardon PART ONE: CULTURAL THEORYThe Language of Emotions in the Social SciencesEmotion and Culture in Theories of JusticeInstitutions: Problems of TheoryFour Cultures: The Evolution of a Parsimonious ModelPART TWO: CULTURE AND CLIMATEHuman Needs and Wants - with Des Gasper, Steven Ney and Michael ThompsonIs Time Running out? The Case of Global Warming - with Michael Thompson and Marco VerweijClumsy Solutions for a Complex World: The Case of Climate Change - with Marco Verweij et alAn Aesthetic View of the Relation between Culture and NaturePostscript: The Future of Clumsiness - Christoph Engel, Michael Thompson and Marco VerweijPART THREE: INSTITUTIONALIZED RISKSThe Risks of the Risk OfficerDangerization and the End of Deviance: The Institutional Environment - with Michalis LianosPostscript - Michalis LianosTerrorism: A Positive Feedback Game - with Gerald MarsPostscript - Gerald MarsBeing Fair to HierarchistsTraditional Culture: Let′s Hear no More about ItEndpiece: The Selfish Giant - Oscar Wilde

Mary Douglas was a towering figure in twentieth century social thought and theory. No one can afford to overlook this collection who is interested in what cultures are, what institutions do, how the social change occurs, how people respond to risks and dangers, and how people can live together peaceably under several kinds of rival institutions. Read together, these essays form a sinuous and profound argument about how human conflicts can get out of control, and also how - if we are careful - people can contain them.Some of these articles were written with bracing directness; others work with feline subtlety. Although they contain some of Douglas′ best writing and most sophisticated arguments, most of them have long been very hard to find. This volume will show a new generation just why her arguments were so important and influential. Many who think they know Douglas′ work will find insights and arguments in these studies which will surprise them, and lead them reappraise their understanding of her achievement. Perri 6, Professor in Public Management in the School of Business and ManagementQueen Mary, University of London Mary Douglas′s insights into the use of nature to justify moral and political preferences are as irresistible as they are enduring for both the theory and practice of contemporary life. Steve Rayner, James Martin Professor of Science and Civilization at the School of Anthropology and Museum EthnographyOxford University