Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

Thinking fast and slow.

NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

/pdf/studying-consumption-through-the-lens-of-practice-4koq4pi9g5.pdf

Studying consumption through the lens of practice

Following the important recent work of Robert Putnam, there is considerable current debate about whether the volume of ‘social capital’ in western societies is in decline and if so what might be the implications for political democracy. Evaluations of the arguments are difficult both because the concept of social capital is a contested one and because measuring social capital is difficult. This paper focuses on membership of voluntary associations in England and Wales as a key measure of social capital and analyses trends in associational membership and their social determinants using the Oxford Mobility Study and British Household Panel Survey. We show that focusing on seven associations there is a broad pattern of stability in membership with the striking and remarkable exception of falling male membership of trade unions and working-men?s clubs. We see this as testimony to a class polarisation in membership in which working class men have been increasingly marginalised from associational memberships. O...

Dynamics of social capital trends and turnover in associational membership in England and Wales, 1972-98

The Evolving Content of Meals in Great Britain: Results of a Survey in 2012 in Comparison with the 1950s

Sociological analysis of eating has for a long time tracked the fate of a popularly endorsed, idealized form of the “family” or “proper” meal. “Snacking” has often been constructed as its symbolic opposite, as irregular, anomic and unhealthy. This paper, based on data from a survey of eating patterns conducted in Great Britain in 2012 (n = 2,784), analyzes eating occasions which respondents stated were snacks rather than meals, focusing on their frequency, scheduling, contents, duration and social context. It finds that “snacks” are taken across all socio-demographic groups and take place in accordance with a common and predictable schedule. Snacks are smaller and less structured than most meals but mostly do not comprise what is generically described as “snack foods.” Snacks are shorter in duration, and less sociable than other eating events, reflecting their size, simplicity and informality. However, most are eaten in company, are planned for, and are wholesome. Common negative evaluations of ea...

Understanding Eating Events: Snacks and Meal Patterns in Great Britain

Based upon a systematic examination of the Good Food Guide, the principal annual handbook purporting to identify the highest-quality restaurant provision in the UK, this paper studies the construct...

Alan Warde

Papers

Studying consumption through the lens of practice

Dynamics of social capital trends and turnover in associational membership in England and Wales, 1972-98

The Evolving Content of Meals in Great Britain: Results of a Survey in 2012 in Comparison with the 1950s

Understanding Eating Events: Snacks and Meal Patterns in Great Britain

Imagining British Cuisine: Representations of Culinary Identity in the Good Food Guide, 1951–2007