scholarly journals Anarchy and Culture: Insights from the Anthropology of War

2002 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Nonlinear System ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Causes Of War ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Almost All

Some prominent scholars and public activists contend that a fundamental change in the nature of world politics can be brought about through efforts to change prevailing culture, norms, and ideas. In this view, behavior in anarchy is what the prevailing culture makes of it, since social reality is, in Alexander Wendt's words, “ideas almost all the way down.” Anthropologists studying the causes of war in pre-industrial anarchies have tested this hypothesis extensively. Their research shows that war behavior cannot be reduced to either material factors or culture alone. Rather, material, institutional, and cultural elements must all be taken into account simultaneously in assessing an anarchical society's propensity for war and in designing strategies to promote change. Models of nested causality or of interaction effects between variables can sometimes capture these causal interrelationships, but they cannot capture nonlinear system effects that often play a prominent role. Patterns found in anthropological research can serve as a heuristic for understanding the democratic peace and processes of contemporary international cultural change.

scholarly journals Modelling cultural systems and selective filters

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Jansson ◽  
Elliot Aguilar ◽  
Alberto Acerbi ◽  
Magnus Enquist
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Change Models ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Modelling Framework ◽  
Structure Changes ◽  
Cultural Systems ◽  
Cultural Domain ◽  
The Individual

A specific goal of the field of cultural evolution is to understand how processes of transmission and selection at the individual level lead to population-wide patterns of cultural diversity and change. Models of cultural evolution have typically assumed that traits are independent of one another and essentially exchangeable. But culture has a structure: traits bear relationships to one another that affect the transmission and selection process itself. Here we introduce a modelling framework to explore the effect of cultural structure on the process of learning. Through simulations, we find that introducing this simple structure changes the cultural dynamics. Based on a basic filtering mechanism for parsing these relationships, more elaborate cultural filters emerge. In a mostly incompatible cultural domain of traits, these filters organise culture into mostly (but not fully) consistent and stable systems. Incompatible domains produce small homogeneous cultures, while more compatibility increases size, diversity, and group divergence. When individuals copy based on a trait's features (here, its compatibility relationships) they produce more homogeneous cultures than when they copy based on the agent carrying the cultural trait. We discuss the implications of considering cultural systems and filters in the dynamics of cultural change.

scholarly journals Sociocultural Mechanisms of Conflict: Combining Topic and Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models in an Analysis of Afghanistan, 1979-2001

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Karell ◽  
Michael Raphael Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Cultural Sociology ◽  
Conflict Studies ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
Cultural Domain ◽  
Do So

How do sociocultural dynamics shape conflict? We develop a relational understanding of how social relations, culture, and conflict are interwoven. Using this framework, we examine how combatants' associations with cultural elements affect the interpersonal relationships underlying conflict dynamics, as well as how these relationships engender associations to cultural elements. To do so, we first introduce a novel analytical approach that synthesizes computational textual analysis and stochastic actor-oriented models of longitudinal networks. We then use our approach to analyze a two-level socio-semantic graph representing both the cultural domain and social relationships of prominent militants operating in one Afghan province, Balkh, between 1979 and 2001. Our results indicate that militants' interpersonal comradeships rely, in part, on their connections to cultural elements and relative power. Comradeship, in turn, fosters militants' connections to cultural elements. We conclude by discussing how conflict studies can continue to build on insights from cultural sociology, as well as how cultural sociology and socio-semantic network research can benefit from further engaging conflict studies and developing our analytical approach. We also highlight provisional insights into endogenous mechanisms of conflict resolution and cultural change.

Bridging the Gap from the General to the Specific by Linking Knowledge Management to Business Processes

2011 ◽  
pp. 2572-2586
Author(s):  
John S. Edwards ◽  
John B. Kidd
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Business Processes ◽  
Organisational Learning ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
Management Problems ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Different Cultures

A phenomenon common to almost all fields is that there is a gap between theory and practical implementation. However, this is a particular problem in knowledge management, where much of the literature consists of general principles written in the context of a ‘knowledge world’ that has few, if any, references to how to carry out knowledge management in organisations. In this chapter, we put forward the view that the best way to bridge this gap between general principles and the specific issues facing a given organisation is to link knowledge management to the organisation’s business processes. After briefly reviewing, and rejecting alternative ways in which this gap might be bridged, the chapter goes on to explain the justification for, and the potential benefits and snags of, linking knowledge management to business processes. Successful and unsuccessful examples are presented. We concentrate especially on the issues of establishing what knowledge is relevant to an organisation at present, the need for organisational learning to cope with the inevitable change, and the additional problems posed by the growing internationalisation of operations. We conclude that linking knowledge management in terms of business processes is the best route for organisations to follow, but that it is not the answer to all knowledge management problems, especially where different cultures and/or cultural change are involved.

Introduction: Comparative Perspectives on Islamisation

Islamisation ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
A. C. S. Peacock
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Popular Media ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
The World ◽  
Populated State ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Almost All

The Arab conquests of the Middle East and much of North Africa and Central Asia in the seventh century mark the beginning of a process of religious and cultural change which ultimately resulted in the present Muslim-majority populations of almost all of these regions (see Figure 1.1). Yet the countries with the greatest Muslim populations today exist outside the Middle East in South Asia (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and in Southeast Asia, where Indonesia constitutes the largest Muslim-populated state in the world. Islam spread far into Africa and Europe too, and significant Muslim populations also arose in parts of the world which remained mostly non-Muslim, such as China and Ethiopia. This spread of Islam is often referred to as ‘Islamisation’, a term widespread in scholarship and in recent times in more popular media.

The Balance of Power in World Politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall L. Schweller
Keyword(s):  
Power System ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
Material Forces ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Core Theory ◽  
Minimum Requirements

The balance of power—a notoriously slippery, murky, and protean term, endlessly debated and variously defined—is the core theory of international politics within the realist perspective. A “balance of power” system is one in which the power held and exercised by states within the system is checked and balanced by the power of others. Thus, as a nation’s power grows to the point that it menaces other powerful states, a counter-balancing coalition emerges to restrain the rising power, such that any bid for world hegemony will be self-defeating. The minimum requirements for a balance of power system include the existence of at least two or more actors of roughly equal strength, states seeking to survive and preserve their autonomy, alliance flexibility, and the ability to resort to war if need be. At its essence, balance of power is a type of international order. Theorists disagree, however, about the normal operation of the balance of power. Structural realists describe an “automatic version” of the theory, whereby system balance is a spontaneously generated, self-regulating, and entirely unintended outcome of states pursuing their narrow self-interests. Earlier versions of balance of power were more consistent with a “semi-automatic” version of the theory, which requires a “balancer” state throwing its weight on one side of the scale or the other, depending on which is lighter, to regulate the system. The British School’s discussion of balance of power depicts a “manually operated” system, wherein the process of equilibrium is a function of human contrivance, with emphasis on the skill of diplomats and statesmen, a sense of community of nations, of shared responsibility, and a desire and need to preserve the balance of power system. As one would expect of a theory that made its appearance in the mid-16th century, balance of power is not without its critics. Liberals claim that globalization, democratic peace, and international institutions have fundamentally transformed international relations, moving it out of the realm of power politics. Constructivists claim that balance of power theory’s focus on material forces misses the central role played by ideational factors such as norms and identities in the construction of threats and alliances. Realists, themselves, wonder why no global balance of power has materialized since the end of the Cold War.

Statistical Analysis of International Interdependencies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Ward
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Systematic Data ◽  
Causes Of War ◽  
The University ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study ◽  
Violent Conflicts

The origin of the statistical analysis of international relations can be traced back to 1920s with the work of Quincy Wright, who founded the University of Chicago’s Committee on International Relations. He led an interdisciplinary study of war that provided a first compendium of what was then known about the causes of war. Wright's studies and those that came after them were based on the assumption that systematic data were required to advance our knowledge about the causes of violent conflicts, and that an analysis of the dynamics of strategic decision making were essential; in short, systematic data coupled with a theoretical framework that focused on the decision-making calculus. However, debates soon raged over whether this scientific approach was better than the classical approach, which was based on philosophy, history, and law, and did not conform to strict standards of verification and proof. Since then, the literature has evolved into studies with a strong theoretical motivation, often expressed via game theoretical analytics, examined empirically with statistical frameworks that are specifically sculpted to probe those strategic dependencies. As such, existing models have resolved the levels of analysis problem that appeared daunting to earlier generations by actually focusing on the modeling of aspects of world politics that enjoin many different levels simultaneously.

Book Reviews: La Penseé Politique de Kant, Fabian Socialism and English Politics 1884–1918, The Conservative Enemy: A Programme of Radical Reform for the 1960s, Out of Stagnation: A Policy for Growth, The Politics of Influence: British Ex-Servicemen, Cabinet Decisions and Cultural Change (1917–57), The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Salaries in the Public Services in England and Wales, A Metropolis Votes, Power and Politics in Belgian Education: 1815–1961, A History of Italian Fascism, The Government of Italy, A Short History of Italy, The American Secretary of State, Strategy, Politics, and Defense Budgets, The Revolution in World Politics, Ideology, Politics and Government in the Soviet Union: An Introduction, The Soviet Union 1922–1962, The U.S.S.R. and the Future, Leninism, The Private Life of Josif Stalin, Politics and Society in India, Modern Indian Political Tradition, Prophet of Indian Nationalism. A Study of the Political Thought of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh 1893–1910, Local Government in China under the Ch'ing, Legislatures, Senatorial Politics and Foreign Policy, Procedure in the Canadian House of Commons, Approaches to the Study of Political Participation, Public Opinion and Congressional Elections, Groups in Theory and Practice

1963 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-364
Author(s):  
John Day ◽  
Frank Bealey ◽  
Justin Grossman ◽  
Allen Potter ◽  
Edgar Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
Radical Reform ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

scholarly journals THE SOCIAL MEDIA AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGES AT NEW GENERATIONS :ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH AT BAGHDAD CITY

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 360-377
Author(s):  
Zahra ABBAS
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young People ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Contemporary Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Impact

The research seeks to reveal the impact of the means of communication and cultural change among new generations and their reflection on the nature of their cultural formation - The importance of research Modern means of communication constitute a threat to traditional social values and customs and put society in front of new problems, especially among new generations. Secondly, it is one of the most effective means to effect a cultural change that pushes society to interact with contemporary culture and break traditional barriers, and its ability to threaten a system of traditional social values in society The risks it can leave on social and moral values in society, especially on young people, which makes these risks reflected in the disintegration of the national feelings of young people and their direction towards their individual interests and the search for freedom and individual achievements and a culture of interest in the overall issues in society.

scholarly journals Reflections

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 326-326
Author(s):  
DAVID C. THOMASMA
Keyword(s):  
Research Ethics ◽  
Clinical Ethics ◽  
Healthcare Reform ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Broad Consensus ◽  
The Way

Can it be already 30 years since the first days of modern, secular bioethics? As those of us in the field for almost all these years arrive near the end of our careers, we find that time has truly flown and the challenges have not diminished one bit. If anything, they are even greater than in the early years. Along the way it was tempting to think that the broad consensus reached on research ethics, on the four principles, on the need for consent in clinical ethics, and then on rights in reproduction and dying, would paint the picture rather well. Only fill-in would be needed by the apprentices coming afterward. Yet time and again new biological and medical discoveries continued to challenge that painting. A new canvas had to be hung. Among the major newer developments were the challenges of healthcare reform, genetics, antifoundationalism, the certification of ethics consultants, and now, the internationalization of bioethics, its relationship to the environment and world politics, and biotechnology.

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