How Institutions Think
{{Short description|1986 book by Mary Douglas}}
{{more footnotes|date=June 2015}}
{{Infobox book
| name = How Institutions Think
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| image = How Institutions Think.jpg
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| author = Mary Douglas
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| subject = Cultural anthropology
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| publisher = Syracuse University Press
| pub_date = 1986
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| isbn = 0-8156-2369-0
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| preceded_by = In the Active Voice (1982)
| followed_by = Constructive Drinking (1987)
}}
How Institutions Think (first published 1986) is a book that contains the published version of the Frank W. Abrams Lectures delivered by the influential cultural anthropologist Mary Douglas at Syracuse University in March 1985.
Summary
In How Institutions Think, Douglas offers a critique of the rational choice theory{{Cite news|last=Hacking|first=Ian|date=1986-12-18|title=Knowledge|language=en|volume=08|work=London Review of Books|issue=22|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v08/n22/ian-hacking/knowledge|access-date=2021-03-20|issn=0260-9592}} rooted in social anthropology and a structural functionalist approach. She aims at explaining how humans cooperate, and the role of building and maintaining institutions to shape ways of thinking useful to cooperation. To achieve this, she builds on the work of Émile Durkheim and Ludwig Fleck and examples drawn from anthropology.{{Cite journal|last=Kearl|first=Michael C.|date=1988|title=How Institutions Think.Mary Douglas|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/228980|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=94|issue=1|pages=206–208|doi=10.1086/228980|issn=0002-9602}}
She argues that rational choice theory that humans cooperate because this is individually advantageous can not explain empirically observed phenomena, such as self-sacrifice or non-authoritarian, 'latent', groups. The book aims at discussing alternative explanations, such as the building of analogies to support common understandings from early human communities.{{Cite journal|last1=Logue|first1=Danielle M|last2=Clegg|first2=Stewart|last3=Gray|first3=John|date=2016-07-01|title=Social organization, classificatory analogies and institutional logics: Institutional theory revisits Mary Douglas|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715614637|journal=Human Relations|language=en|volume=69|issue=7|pages=1587–1609|doi=10.1177/0018726715614637|issn=0018-7267|hdl=10453/43962|s2cid=147526142 |hdl-access=free}}
Influence
In 2019, Marc Ventresca argued this is Douglas' best-known book.{{Cite web|date=2018-09-12|title=46: Classics of Management and Organization Theory - AoM 2018 Workshop LIVE|url=https://www.talkingaboutorganizations.com/e46/|access-date=2021-03-20|website=Talking About Organizations Podcast|language=en-US}}
Reviews
- Ian Hacking in the London Review of Books, 8/22, 18 December 1986.
- Kenneth Lipartito in the Business History Review, 80/1, Spring 2006, pp. 135–140.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Mary Douglas}}
Category:Books by Mary Douglas
Category:Syracuse University Press books
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