scholarly journals When can cultural selection explain adaptation?

2022 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azita Chellappoo
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Selection Models ◽  
Cultural Selection ◽  
Selective Process ◽  
Strategy I

AbstractCultural selection models aim to explain cultural phenomena as the products of a selective process, often characterising institutions, practices, norms or behaviours as adaptations. I argue that a lack of attention has been paid to the explanatory power of cultural selection frameworks. Arguments for cultural selection frequently depend on demonstrating only that selection models can in principle be applied to culture, rather than explicitly demonstrating the explanatory payoffs that could arise from their application. Understanding when and how cultural selection generates powerful explanations is crucial to evaluating cultural selection, as well as realising its promised epistemic and practical benefits. I argue that the ability for cultural selection to explain ‘design without a designer’ is crucial to successful and powerful cultural selection explanations. I introduce the strategy of comparing cultural selection to goal-directed agent accounts in order to evaluate when cultural selection can provide distinctive explanatory payoffs, drawing on two case studies to illustrate the benefits of this strategy. I argue that a focus on phenomena which cannot be explained through intention or agency-based explanations in particular could provide a fruitful avenue to identifying the cases where cultural selection can be insightfully applied.

scholarly journals Surviving a zombie apocalypse: Leadership configurations in extreme contexts

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A Buchanan ◽  
Markus Hällgren
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Leadership Styles ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Day Of The Dead ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Extreme Contexts ◽  
Social Science Fiction

What can the classic zombie movie, Day of the Dead, tell us about leadership? In our analysis of this film, we explore leadership behaviours in an extreme context – a zombie apocalypse where survivors face persistent existential threat. Extreme context research presents methodological challenges, particularly with regard to fieldwork. The use of films as proxy case studies is one way in which to overcome these problems, and for researchers working in an interpretivist perspective, ‘social science fiction’ is increasingly used as a source of inspiration and ideas. The contribution of our analysis concerns highlighting the role of leadership configurations in extreme contexts, an approach not previously addressed in this field, but one that has greater explanatory power than current perspectives. In Day of the Dead, we observe several different configurations – patterns of leadership styles and behaviours – emerging, shifting and overlapping across the phases of the narrative, each with radically different consequences for the group of survivors. These observations suggest a speculative theory of leadership configurations and their implications in extreme contexts, for exploring further, with other methods.

Decision-Making in Revolutionary States: Beyond the Whims of Charismatic Leaders

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-463
Author(s):  
Mahsa Rouhi ◽  
Jonathan L Snow
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Policy Decisions ◽  
New Framework ◽  
Made In

Abstract Understanding how foreign policy decisions are made in revolutionary states has proven to be a difficult puzzle for scholars and practitioners alike. While political scientists have made great strides in developing standard decision-making frameworks, those have generally been based on the experiences and conditions of Western states and rely on stable government structures for their explanatory power. Revolutionary states by their very nature lack this stability, since the conditions of revolution commonly result in major reorganizations or wholesale removal of preexisting government structures. In this article, we begin to build a new framework for understanding decision-making in revolutionary states and employ case studies of Iran, Russia, Sudan, and Afghanistan to show that the process in these states involves input and considerations from various actors and therefore cannot be understood by simply looking at the desires of the charismatic leaders that are so often the focus of outside analysts.

Rethinking Spain and Korea through a State–Firm Coordination Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-49
Author(s):  
Angela Garcia Calvo
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Coordination Problem ◽  
State Firm

This chapter retells the story of Spain’s and Korea’s upgrading from the perspective of state–firm coordination. The larger purpose is to showcase the book’s argument and its explanatory power. The chapter consists of six sections. After the chapter’s introduction, section 2.2 situates large Spanish and Korean firms and discusses their limitations. Section 2.3 defines upgrading as a coordination problem and explains why states were necessary for upgrading. Section 2.4 characterizes Spain’s and Korea’s pathways to upgrading and analyzes the factors that led each country to choose a particular strategy. Section 2.5 evaluates the outcomes of upgrading and discusses their broader socioeconomic implications. The final section concludes and makes a transition to the case studies discussed in the next chapters.

Colonialism and Technological Choice: The Case of the Railways of India

Itinerario ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-111
Author(s):  
Ian J. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Background Condition ◽  
Technological Choice ◽  
Colonial India ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Colonial Experience ◽  
Indian Railway ◽  
And Control

To what extent was technological choice within colonial countries deter-mined by requirements or expectations that emanated from interests located within the metropolitan powers? The quick answer, supported by a number of case studies, is that the colonial connection played a major role. The same case studies, however, demonstrate how complex and nuanced the determinants of particular technological choices in particular colonies at particular times were. Moreover, in recent scholarship many facets of the colonial experience have been subjected to considerable deconstruction such that colonialismquacolonialism has lost, for some at least, explanatory power: colonialism has become a background condition, a playing field for the contingent interplay of competing forces and interests located within a colony, a metropole and elsewhere. Without going that far but also without denying the benefits of the richer, more complex understanding deconstruction has brought this paper emphasizes the importance of colonial regimes and colonial labour processes to the analysis of technological choice in colonial contexts. The building and operation of the railways of colonial India provides the content for the arguments that follow. Colonialism as a structure of command and control will be seen to have been a powerful determinant of technological choice for the Indian railways although never independent of other considerations which included, this paper will argue, an important role for Indian railway labour.

scholarly journals The ‘Thing’ in Martin Heidegger and Georges Bataille: Method, Ritual and Prostitution

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sacha Golob
Keyword(s):  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Georges Bataille ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Work First ◽  
Strategy I

This article juxtaposes two of the most influential thinkers of the previous century, Georges Bataille and Martin Heidegger: my overarching claim will be that a contrastive approach allows a better understanding of two central dynamics within their work. First, I show that both were deeply troubled by a certain methodological anxiety; namely, that the practice of writing might distort and deform their insights. By employing a comparative strategy, I suggest that we can gain a better understanding of the very specific form this fear takes in them: in each case, it is articulated and justified in terms of the ‘chose’ or ‘Ding’ (‘thing’) or the ‘objet’ or ‘Objekt’ (‘object’). Second, I argue that close textual comparison allows us to identify an important, new dimension in their reactions to this shared anxiety: the thing or object which was originally the site of the anxiety gradually becomes, through a series of ontological and textual shifts, the solution to it. I track this transformation across a range of case studies including Heidegger's later work on the term ‘Ding’ and Bataille's treatment of prostitution. I close by indicating how these results might create avenues for further research.

scholarly journals Cognitive Study of XHY via Conceptual Integration Theory in English Teaching

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 109-124
Author(s):  
Jia Wen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Meaning Construction ◽  
Integration Theory ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
Conceptual Integration ◽  
Preliminary Attempt ◽  
Conceptual Integration Theory ◽  
Cognitive Study

Based on the conceptual integration theory, this thesis makes a cognitive analysis on the meaning construction of Chinese XHY. Particularly, the author conducts case studies at length of four pieces of XHY in accordance with the categories of conceptual networks, i.e. simplex network, mirror network, single-scope network and double-scope network. Additionally, the analysis of the XHY is conducted in combination with the contextual information or the cultural entrenchment. Above all, this thesis makes a preliminary attempt to apply the conceptual integration theory to the construal of Chinese XHY in order to prove the explanatory power of the theory so that further relevant research can be conducted.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Markwica
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Coercive Diplomacy ◽  
Theoretical Approaches

The concluding chapter starts out by assessing the explanatory power of the logic of affect. It suggests that the model was able to illuminate decisions that were difficult to comprehend from the standpoint of existing theoretical approaches. The logic of affect also improved on accounts where the traditional logics of consequences or appropriateness already enjoyed some success. This has resulted in more comprehensive explanations for why coercive diplomacy worked in the missile crisis but not in the Gulf conflict. After comparing the findings of the case studies, the chapter sketches their policy implications for the practice of coercive diplomacy. Finally, it provides some suggestions for future research that build on this effort to establish an affect-based paradigm in International Relations.

scholarly journals Heading for Success: Three Case Studies of School Transformation through Capital Construction

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Wen-Yan Chen ◽  
Hui-Ling Wendy Pan
Keyword(s):  
School Reform ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Financial Capital ◽  
School Transformation ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Capital Construction ◽  
Unique Context

<p class="apa">Utilizing capital as a construct to analyze leadership that triggers school transformation is a newly emerged perspective. This study employed the capital theory as the framework to explore how schools undertook the transformative tasks by multi-case study. Three secondary schools in Taiwan were recruited to investigate how leaders constructed the intellectual, social, spiritual, and financial capital and the interplay among the capitals. The findings indicated that despite certain strategies commonly employed by case schools, the ways schools develop capitals as the strategy of school transformation depended on their unique context. One form of capital might be used to facilitate another form of capital. The study applied capital perspective to Asian context has extended its explanatory power and has created the basis for further research in the field of school reform.</p>

Zivilmacht Bundesrepublik?

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Culture Of Restraint

Employing perspectives from the fields of political science and history, this interdisciplinary volume examines the explanatory power of the concept of ‘civilian power’ for the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany. Based on European and global topics, the volume examines whether the foreign behaviour of the Federal Republic before and after 1989 can be understood through this concept. Moreover, it examines similar historical concepts like the ‘culture of restraint’, alternatives to civilian power or deviations from the respective concepts in the Federal Republic’s practice of foreign policy. The respective case studies it conducts not only employ relational perspectives through which the Federal Republic’s bilateral relations can be investigated through a theoretical lens, but also examine domestic processes of interpretation and contestation about Germany as a ‘civilian power’. With contributions by Klaus Brummer, Friedrich Kießling, Kristina Spohr, Hanns W. Maull, Gunther Hellmann, Andreas Plöger, Dominik Geppert, Sebastian Harnisch, Ulrich Lappenküper, Mladen Mladenov, Bernhard Stahl, Andreas N. Ludwig, Caroline Rothauge, Christian Rabini, Katharina Dimmroth, Mischa Hansel, Kai Oppermann, Patrick A. Mello.

The Need for Theory Development in Psychology. Some Case Studies

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis Retief
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Conceptual Problems ◽  
Theoretical Analyses ◽  
The Way

An introductory survey of the literature is presented in which the author emphasizes the lack of theoretical sophistication in psychology. It is argued that a greater awareness of theoretical and conceptual problems now exists, and that studies addressing these or similar issues are starting to appear with greater frequency. Two general approaches to the improvement of theoretical development are contrasted: the constructivist philosophy (theoretical sophistication will be achieved by lower level theories spontaneously falling into place) and the comparative approach (theories should be analysed and compared in order to assess their complementary explanatory power and jurisdiction). Case studies of sound theoretical analyses are presented, and conclusions about the necessary elements of a good analysis are drawn. It is argued that metatheoretical issues cannot be ignored, and that the comparative approach to theoretical analysis has much more to offer in the way of theoretical development in psychology than the constructivist approach.

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