Culture Troubles
Politics and the Interpretation of Meaning
Will be published approx. on 22. November 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
978-1-85065-800-9 (ISBN)
Description
Chabal and Daloz's argument is one based on an analysis of culture understood as a system of meanings rather than as values. Hence, the authors offer a methodology that grounds political analysis in the interpretation of what 'makes sense' to the people concerned. Their approach, which resists the tyranny of particularisms but instead proposes a different 'scientific' method, draws upon a wide range of political, sociological and anthropological sources. The authors illustrate the analytical sharpness of this method with a comparative study of the state and political representation in three very different settings: France, Nigeria and Sweden.
Reviews / Votes
'In Chabal's and Daloz's extended and detailed critique of the whole field of comparative politics we have virtually for the first time a general approach that is neither mired in the abstractions of grand theory ... nor overly concerned with ethnocentric normative judgements. [A...] The result is in my view, a major work, thorough, comprehensive, and genuinely ground-breaking: a treatise in the true sense of the word.' -Clifford Geertz, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 'An original, timely, lucid and challenging book.' -Peter Burke, University of CambridgeMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Illustrations
ISBN-13
978-1-85065-800-9 (9781850658009)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Patrick Chabal is Professor of Lusophone African Studies at King's College London. Jean-Pascal Daloz is a senior CNRS Research Fellow at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Bordeaux (CERVL).