The Social Life of Achievement
1st Edition
Published on 1. April 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
248 pages
978-1-78533-215-9 (ISBN)
Description
What happens when people "achieve"? Why do reactions to "achievement" vary so profoundly? And how might an anthropological study of achievement and its consequences allow us to develop a more nuanced model of the motivated agency that operates in the social world? These questions lie at the heart of this volume. Drawing on research from Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, and Latin America, this collection develops an innovative framework for explaining achievement's multiple effects-one which brings together cutting-edge theoretical insights into politics, psychology, ethics, materiality, aurality, embodiment, affect and narrative. In doing so, the volume advances a new agenda for the study of achievement within anthropology, emphasizing the significance of achievement as a moment of cultural invention, and the complexity of "the achiever" as a subject position.
Reviews / Votes
"The Social Life of Achievement is a very interesting and engaging collection, made up of 10 essays covering a very wide range of social achievement. The purpose of the book is to explore some forms of achievement rather than define what achievement is, and in this it succeeds by being thought-provoking and inspiring." * Social Analysis"The range of ethnographic settings is dazzling... there is something here for everyone and a veritable cornucopia for the lover of ethnographic diversity." * American Ethnologist
"We measure our lives in terms of success without questioning what it actually means to achieve it. The essays in this groundbreaking book show that what we perceive as achievement is highly influenced by culture and that... for some people coming close to a desired goal can be rather traumatic. This compilation of highly original essays truly achieves in presenting a radically new view on the term that has dominated public discourse in today's society, but the meaning of which we too often take for granted." * Renata Salecl, Birkbeck College, University of London
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Bibliography; Index; 7 Illustrations; 7 Tables, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
368 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78533-215-9 (9781785332159)
DOI
10.3167/9781782382201
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Nicholas J. Long | Henrietta L. Moore
The Social Life of Achievement
E-Book
11/2013
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€24.49
Available for download
Nicholas J. Long | Henrietta L. Moore
The Social Life of Achievement
E-Book
11/2013
1st Edition
Berghahn Books
€27.49
Available for download
Persons
Nicholas J. Long is an Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the co-editor of Southeast Asian Perspectives on Power (Routledge, 2012) and Sociality: New Directions (Berghahn Books, 2013), and author of the monograph Being Malay in Indonesia: Histories, Hopes and Citizenship in the Riau Archipelago (NUS/NIAS/University of Hawai'i Press, 2013).
Content
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Achievement and Its Social Life
Nicholas J. Long & Henrietta L. Moore
Chapter 1. The Achievement of a Life, a List, a Line
Kathleen Stewart
Chapter 2. Against the Odds: A Professional Gambler's Narrative of Achievement
Rebecca Cassidy
Chapter 3. Men of Sound Reputation: The Passionate Aurality of Achievement in Guyanese Birdsport
Laura H. Mentore
Chapter 4. Political Dimensions of Achievement Psychology: Perspectives on Selfhood, Confidence and Policy from a New Indonesian Province
Nicholas J. Long
Chapter 5. Directive and Definitive Knowledge: Experiencing Achievement in a Thai Meditation Monastery
Joanna Cook
Chaqpter 6. Autism and Affordances of Achievement: Narrative Genres and Parenting Practices
Olga Solomon
Chapter 7. Achievement and Private Equity in the UK: A Game of Abstraction, Sociality and Making Money
Sarah F. Green
Chapter 8. For Family, State, and Nation: Achieving Cosmopolitan Modernity in Late-Socialist Vietnam
Susan Bayly
Chapter 9. Practicing Responsibilisation: The Unwritten Curriculum for Achievement in an American Suburb
Peter Demerath
Chapter 10. Competing to Lose: (Black) Female School Success as Pyrrhic Victory
Signithia Fordham
Notes on Contributors
Index
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Achievement and Its Social Life
Nicholas J. Long & Henrietta L. Moore
Chapter 1. The Achievement of a Life, a List, a Line
Kathleen Stewart
Chapter 2. Against the Odds: A Professional Gambler's Narrative of Achievement
Rebecca Cassidy
Chapter 3. Men of Sound Reputation: The Passionate Aurality of Achievement in Guyanese Birdsport
Laura H. Mentore
Chapter 4. Political Dimensions of Achievement Psychology: Perspectives on Selfhood, Confidence and Policy from a New Indonesian Province
Nicholas J. Long
Chapter 5. Directive and Definitive Knowledge: Experiencing Achievement in a Thai Meditation Monastery
Joanna Cook
Chaqpter 6. Autism and Affordances of Achievement: Narrative Genres and Parenting Practices
Olga Solomon
Chapter 7. Achievement and Private Equity in the UK: A Game of Abstraction, Sociality and Making Money
Sarah F. Green
Chapter 8. For Family, State, and Nation: Achieving Cosmopolitan Modernity in Late-Socialist Vietnam
Susan Bayly
Chapter 9. Practicing Responsibilisation: The Unwritten Curriculum for Achievement in an American Suburb
Peter Demerath
Chapter 10. Competing to Lose: (Black) Female School Success as Pyrrhic Victory
Signithia Fordham
Notes on Contributors
Index