''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 Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...

Mary Douglas at Syracuse University in March 1985.

Summary

In ''How Institutions Think'', Douglas offers a critique of the rational choice theory 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 David Émile Durkheim ( or ; 15 April 1858 – 15 November 1917) was a French sociologist. Durkheim formally established the academic discipline of sociology and is commonly cited as one of the principal architects of modern social science, al ...

and Ludwig Fleck and examples drawn from anthropology. 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.

Influence

In 2019, Marc Ventresca argued this is Douglas' best-known book.

Reviews

* Ian Hacking in the '' London Review of Books'', 8/22, 18 December 1986. *Kenneth Lipartito in the ''

Business History Review The ''Business History Review'' is a scholarly quarterly published by Cambridge University Press for Harvard Business School. ''Business History Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of business history. It was establish ...

'', 80/1, Spring 2006, pp. 135–140.

References

1986 books Books by Mary Douglas Anthropology books Syracuse University Press books {{anthropology-book-stub