Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the WorstUniversity of Chicago Press, 15 sep. 2008 - 336 sidor 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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... example — scales of quality often display the same type of asymmetry exhibited in Durkheim's work . Standard mak- ers purport to consider the full range of quality . Yet standards are constructed in such a way as to eliminate the worst ...
... example, that while dogs, cats, chairs, and tables all have legs, dogs and cats are conceptually different from chairs and tables; while dog and cat legs can instigate movement, chair and table legs cannot. Critical features, similarity ...
... example, when a friend expresses the desire for a “warm and cuddly pet,” one might accurately respond with a puppy, a kitten, or a rabbit. In the same way, a call for a “rich and decadent dessert” might reasonably result in a hot fudge ...
... example and the worst example of a category . Note that the process of graded membership foregrounds the best - case pole , enunciating and highlighting in consciousness the attributes of a concept's ideal . As the. Figure 1.1 . The ...
... example of any concept ) is transformed to positive asymmetry ( the tendency to emphasize only examples of the best or most positive cases ) . In this way , the natural workings of the brain are used to support or essential- ize ...
Innehåll
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 |
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Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Begränsad förhandsgranskning - 2008 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Ingen förhandsgranskning - 2006 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Ingen förhandsgranskning - 2006 |