Governance, Politics and Plural Perceptions

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* Book: Michael Thompson with Marco Verweij, eds: Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: Governance, Politics and Plural Perceptions. Palgrave.


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Charles Vanderhaegen:

"This brings me to the subject of a theory - it sails mainly under the name Cultural Theory but also Theory of Plural Rationality, Grid-Group Theory, Theory of Socio-Cultural Viability and even Neo-Durkheimian Institutional Theory - of which the foundations were lead by Mary Douglas, and courageously further developed by her followers, the leading researcher of which is Michael Thompson.

I strongly recommend the book he edited with Marco Verweij: “Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World: Governance, Politics and Plural Perceptions” published by Palgrave.

It is a powerful and original statement on why well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social ills so often derail, and how effective, efficient and broadly accepted solutions to social problems can be found.

It takes its cue from the idea that our endlessly changing and complex social worlds consist of ceaseless interactions between four organising, justifying and perceiving social relations. Each time one of these perspectives is excluded from collective decision-making, governance failure inevitably result. Successful solutions are therefore creative combinations of four opposing ways of organising and thinking. The book shows the force of these theoretically sophisticated, yet simple and practical ideas for a number of pressing issues from around the World."


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