Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the WorstUniversity of Chicago Press, 15. sep. 2008 - 336 sider 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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... similar vantage point.32 While members of thought communities may stand at a common port- hole , it is important to remember that a community's view is generally not an objective picture of the group's “ natural ” setting or concrete ...
... similar observation: The failure to prevent September 11 was not a failure of intelligence or coordination. It was a failure of imagination. . . . Imagining evil of this magnitude simply does not come naturally to the American character ...
... similar problem . In her interviews , she reports a period in which she considered the potential for a failed marriage . But like John , she cannot fully define these fearful images : “ The day after I got the wedding gown , ” reports ...
... similar perception : I tried for better than a year to persuade him I was unhappy — and we just don't discuss it . . . . We just go on like there is nothing wrong . We talk about the kids , we eat dinner , we go places . Yet another of ...
... similar in tone, leaving even less room for considerations of the worst: Remember that your child's early pattern of development is unique and usually due more to the child's nature than to her nurture. . . . She is just growing and ...
Indhold
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 |
Andre udgaver - Se alle
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Begrænset visning - 2008 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Ingen forhåndsvisning - 2006 |
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst Karen A. Cerulo Ingen forhåndsvisning - 2006 |