Maya Divination: Ritual Techniques of Distributed Cognition

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 177-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
John J. McGraw
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Cognitive Practice ◽  
Mediating Structures

Based on more than 24 months of ethnographic research among Maya ritualists in the western highlands of Guatemala, this article examines howpajooneem, ortz’ite’seed divination, facilitates decision-making and distributes cognition between client, diviner, and ritual techniques.Tz’ite’seed divination exhibits a stylized routine that draws on important ‘mediating structures,’ including the 260-day ritual calendar known throughout Mesoamerica. Because it is both a ritual and cognitive practice, Maya divination grounds decision-making in a perennially relevant set of cultural values.

scholarly journals Navigating the Decision Space: Shared Medical Decision Making as Distributed Cognition

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (7) ◽  
pp. 1035-1048 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine D. Lippa ◽  
Markus A. Feufel ◽  
F. Eric Robinson ◽  
Valerie L. Shalin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Shared Decision Making ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Medical Decision Making ◽  
Medical Training ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Medical Decision ◽  
Shared Decision ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Decision Space

Despite increasing prominence, little is known about the cognitive processes underlying shared decision making. To investigate these processes, we conceptualize shared decision making as a form of distributed cognition. We introduce a Decision Space Model to identify physical and social influences on decision making. Using field observations and interviews, we demonstrate that patients and physicians in both acute and chronic care consider these influences when identifying the need for a decision, searching for decision parameters, making actionable decisions Based on the distribution of access to information and actions, we then identify four related patterns: physician dominated; physician-defined, patient-made; patient-defined, physician-made; and patient-dominated decisions. Results suggests that (a) decision making is necessarily distributed between physicians and patients, (b) differential access to information and action over time requires participants to transform a distributed task into a shared decision, and (c) adverse outcomes may result from failures to integrate physician and patient reasoning. Our analysis unifies disparate findings in the medical decision-making literature and has implications for improving care and medical training.

scholarly journals ‘When the Numbers Stop Adding’: Imagining Futures in Perilous Presents Among Youth in Nairobi Ghettos

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi van Stapele
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Youth Gangs ◽  
Social Navigation ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Relational Concept ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Over Time

AbstractStudying the aspirations of young men, in Mathare, Nairobi, highlights their social becoming in contexts in which they incessantly risk social and physical death. Taking aspiration as a relational concept brings into view the temporal and spatial interactions between different aspirations and how these connect to emerging and future pathways of these young men. The ensuing relationalities at play are analysed through their context-bound negotiations of dominant gender norms to elucidate how these inform their social navigation towards male respectability, now and in the future. Adding the dimension of positionality here is useful to bring out how individual negotiations of gender norms in space and over time allows a nuanced view on situated entanglements of aspirations, pathways and dominant discourses and how these convolute and intensify in particular decision-making processes. The analyses are based on longitudinal ethnographic research with youth gangs in Nairobi for four months annually on average since 2005.

The Roads (Not) Taken: The Materiality, Poetics and Politics of Infrastructure in Manipur, India

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vibha Arora ◽  
Raile Rocky Ziipao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
The Road ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Development Route

Roads are bitumen covered concrete metaphors of modernity and development, and they materially represent fantasies, collective hopes, and aspirations of future(s). They symbolize movement, connectivity, transactions and transportation, and eminently reflect governmentality. Our article is about Manipur’s connective infrastructures, and it focuses on internal roads, and a border highway that connects Imphal (Manipur’s capital city) to Dimapur at Nagaland in North-east India. We explain the infrastructural deficit within Manipur and decision-making about them being influenced by a hill-valley socio-ecological ethnic distributional conflict. The road links and is part of the uneven development route. We provide an ethnographic account of a truck journey undertaken between Imphal and Dimapur in 2018, and this enables us to understand routinized corruption and the collusion of state and non-state actors therein. The road is the symbol of hope, and a developmental desire, and epitomizes state’s governmentality and developmental project of progress, nonetheless it also gets transformed into the central locale of political protest, ethnic conflict when ethnic groups appropriate it forcibly to erect blockades and organize protests in its arterial space. The roads and highways spatially produce and reproduce (il)legality, (il)legibility, and (il)legitimacy of the Indian state. Our ethnographic research unpacks and invokes the multivalence of roads.

scholarly journals The more you value, the less you practice: a study on culture and managerial discretion

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-50
Author(s):  
Moustafa Salman Haj Youssef ◽  
Hiba Maher Hussein ◽  
Hoda Awada
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Performance ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
National Level ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Managerial Discretion ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Content Type

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine cross-cultural differences in managerial discretion and the extent to which variations and interaction of cultural practices and values affect the degree of freedom in decision making that is accorded to executives. This paper offers a holistic approach to investigating culture in addition to acknowledging its paradoxical nature. Design/methodology/approach Using a panel of prominent management consultants to rate discretion across 18 countries, the authors further develop the national-level construct of managerial discretion by empirically investigating the influence of cultural practices and values on CEOs’ discretion. Findings The study reveals that cultural values moderate the relationship between cultural practices and managerial discretion for three cultural dimensions: individualism, uncertainty tolerance and power distance (PD). By adopting the logic of marginal utility, the authors also show that the more a society values individualism, uncertainty tolerance and PD, the weaker the effect of their practices on managerial discretion. Originality/value Few research has attempted to assess both cultural values and practices in relation to managerial discretion. By showing the mechanism in which culture affects the level of managerial discretion, the authors offer new theoretical insights and practical implications, overall contributing to the field of cross-cultural and strategic management. Finally, this will offer CEO’s a new perspective of leveraging culture as a tool, enhancing their decision-making capabilities in the aim of improving organizational performance.

Lack of Transparency, Accountability, and Victims' Participation in Decision Making: Haiti's Major Threat

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-16
Author(s):  
Adlin Noël
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
The People ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
Participation In Decision Making ◽  
The Way

I was born and for the most part raised in Haiti. For almost five years, I never went back, including when the earthquake struck. Thanks to my anthropological research organized by Dr. Schuller, I now have a better understanding of Haiti's struggle to recover from the earthquake. I have been enlightened by different testimonies and observations from camp residents during this ethnographic research. I realize now that the root of the situation is way more complex than I would have ever imagined. I knew very well that the environment was not suitable for the people after the quake. However, how are we to evaluate the amount of aid that has been promised to Haiti? Is this aid even reaching the victims? Is there a relationship between those in charge of distribution and the victims? Is the aid that we send to Haiti actually helping the way in which we want?

Why do information system controls fail to prevent unethical behavior?

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-266
Author(s):  
Karma Sherif ◽  
Richard Pitre ◽  
Mariatu Kamara
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information System ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Unethical Behavior ◽  
Enterprise Systems ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Tone At The Top ◽  
Unethical Decision Making

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the ability of enterprise systems and embedded controls to prevent unethical behavior within organizations. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a case study to explore how the configuration of information technology (IT) controls within enterprise systems and their effectiveness in preventing unethical behavior is compromised by the tone at the top. Findings The study highlights the decisive role of cultural values and leadership in moderating the relationship between IT controls and unethical behavior and the realization that ethical environments are socially constructed not enforced. Research limitations/implications The limitation of this research is that the authors conducted one case study in an institution of higher education to refute the theory that IT controls embedded within enterprise systems can prevent unethical, and thus, the results may not be generalizable to other industries. Practical implications An important implication of the research is that the configuration of information system controls is affected by the organizational culture and the ethical values embraced by top management. When the tone at the top does not emphasize the ethical code of conduct, the configuration of IT controls will be compromised leaving organizations vulnerable at all levels. Originality/value Although the authors have a wealth of knowledge on ethics and theories that explain why unethical decision-making continue to surface to the headlines, they have little explanation as to why enterprise systems fail to stop unethical behavior in organizations. This study explores technical, organizational and individual factors that contribute to unethical decision-making.

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