Sep 28 2006
Culture and Risk
Read this Wiki entry while researching Political Culture: Cultural Theory of risk
Names to note: Mary Douglas, Aaron Wildavsky
Keywords: anthropology, functionalist, environmentalist, Culture and Politics
The Grid/Group Typology:
Grid: position in society, environ by the strangers
Group: environ by friends/family, etc.
Individualist
Individualists experience low grid and low group … individualists embrace trial-and-error.
Egalitarian
Egalitarians experience low grid and high group. … egalitarians are sensitive to low probability-high consequence risks. … see nature as fragile, like a ball balanced precariously on an overturned cup. Any small disturbance will send it crashing down. Thus egalitarians advocate the precautionary principle.
Hierarchist
Hierarchists experience high grid and high group.
Fatalist
Fatalists experience high grid and low group.
–Russian and Chinese/Learned helplessness