Commentary on Searle's ‘Social ontology: Some basic principles’

D’Andrade, Roy G.

doi:10.1177/1463499606061732

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…To function effectively within KOG, members need to know—and indeed psychologically “internalize” or commit to (D’Andrade and Strauss, 1992)—this guild’s particular cultural “model” or understanding of “doing good.” These distinctive normative goals—socially learned and thus transmitted in the act of play itself and thus “cultural” in the cognitive anthropological sense of this term (D’Andrade, 1995)—importantly shape whether KOG online game-play is experienced alternately as psychosocially beneficial or harmful. That is, Lainey and Vern’s personal norms have become culturally institutionalized in thought and practice, now broadly shared in KOG as a whole rather than only evident in these two’s individual behaviors (D’Andrade, 2006).…”

Section: Discussion Of Results In Relationship To the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

A guild culture of ‘casual raiding’ enhances its members’ online gaming experiences: A cognitive anthropological and ethnographic approach to World of Warcraft

Snodgrass

Batchelder

Eisenhauer

et al. 2016

New Media & Society

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We document the norms and practices of a “casual raiding guild” pursuing a balanced approach to World of Warcraft gaming under the banner “offline life matters.” Confirming insights in the problematic online gaming literature, our ethnography reveals that some guild members experience gaming distress. However, this guild’s normative culture helps its members better self-regulate and thus protect themselves from, among other things, their own impulses to over-play and thus compromise their offline lives. We suggest that cognitive anthropological “culture as socially transmitted knowledge” theories—combined with ethnographic methods—illuminate how socially learned gaming patterns shape online experiences. Our approach helps us refine theories judging socially motivated Internet activity as harmful. We affirm the potential for distress in these social gaming contexts, but we also show how a specific guild culture can minimize or even reverse such distress, in this case promoting experiences that strike a nice balance between thrill and comradery.

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Section: Discussion Of Results In Relationship To the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

A guild culture of ‘casual raiding’ enhances its members’ online gaming experiences: A cognitive anthropological and ethnographic approach to World of Warcraft

Snodgrass

Batchelder

Eisenhauer

et al. 2016

New Media & Society

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“…is worth noting that they are far from resolved, and there is much scholarship discussing these issues (D'Andrade 2006;Sponsel 2007;Snodgrass & Tiedje 2008). Some authors assert that a lack of religious tradition among leading American scientists has led to a lack of ongoing interaction between these scientists and religious individuals and communities, and a lack of cultural context for understanding the differences in their worldview, a gap that hampers dialogue (Ecklund 2012).…”

Section: Why Conservation Needs Religion 243mentioning

confidence: 97%

Why Conservation Needs Religion

McLeod

Palmer²

2015

Coastal Management

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Conservationists have been criticized for failing to protect nature in the face of mounting threats including overexploitation, species loss, habitat destruction, and climate change. Resource managers and scientists have yet to fully engage a major segment of the global population in their outreach efforts to protect the environment: religious communities. The world's religions have been recognized as a surprising driver of support for conservation of biological diversity, and numerous examples demonstrate religious and conservation groups working together to achieve conservation outcomes. However, many conservation organizations do not effectively engage religious groups. When conservation organizations do engage religious groups, efforts to do so are often ad hoc and such partnerships may wane over time. A more systematic approach is needed that directly engages religious communities, develops effective partnerships, supports and sustains dialogue aimed at finding common ground despite potentially divergent worldviews, and establishes supporting mechanisms to maintain the partnerships that are developed. Effective partnerships between religious and conservation groups represent significant untapped potential which can directly support conservation outcomes; such partnerships are likely to become increasingly important with dwindling support for conservation.

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“…Ethnography is a case study account of the cultural knowledge and behavior characteristic of a particular group or setting [1,38,39]. The "culture" piece relates to the fact that humans as a social species have the evolved ability to think and behave jointly or collectively [40][41][42]. That is, humans transmit information to each other, which becomes the basis of collective attention, intention, and action [43][44][45].…”

Section: The Abductive Logic Of Ethnographic Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Causal inference in ethnographic research: Refining explanations with abductive logic, strength of evidence assessments, and graphical models

Snodgrass,

Dengah,

Sagstetter

et al. 2024

PLoS ONE

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In their classic accounts, anthropological ethnographers developed causal arguments for how specific sociocultural structures and processes shaped human thought, behavior, and experience in particular settings. Despite this history, many contemporary ethnographers avoid establishing in their work direct causal relationships between key variables in the way that, for example, quantitative research relying on experimental or longitudinal data might. As a result, ethnographers in anthropology and other fields have not advanced understandings of how to derive causal explanations from their data, which contrasts with a vibrant “causal revolution” unfolding in the broader social and behavioral sciences. Given this gap in understanding, we aim in the current article to clarify the potential ethnography has for illuminating causal processes related to the cultural influence on human knowledge and practice. We do so by drawing on our ongoing mixed methods ethnographic study of games, play, and avatar identities. In our ethnographic illustrations, we clarify points often left unsaid in both classic anthropological ethnographies and in more contemporary interdisciplinary theorizing on qualitative research methodologies. More specifically, we argue that for ethnographic studies to illuminate causal processes, it is helpful, first, to state the implicit strengths and logic of ethnography and, second, to connect ethnographic practice more fully to now well-developed interdisciplinary approaches to causal inference. In relation to the first point, we highlight the abductive inferential logic of ethnography. Regarding the second point, we connect the ethnographic logic of abduction to what Judea Pearl has called the ladder of causality, where moving from association to intervention to what he calls counterfactual reasoning produces stronger evidence for causal processes. Further, we show how graphical modeling approaches to causal explanation can help ethnographers clarify their thinking. Overall, we offer an alternative vision of ethnography, which contrasts, but nevertheless remains consistent with, currently more dominant interpretive approaches.

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Commentary on Searle's ‘Social ontology: Some basic principles’

Cited by 15 publications

References 5 publications

A guild culture of ‘casual raiding’ enhances its members’ online gaming experiences: A cognitive anthropological and ethnographic approach to World of Warcraft

A guild culture of ‘casual raiding’ enhances its members’ online gaming experiences: A cognitive anthropological and ethnographic approach to World of Warcraft

Why Conservation Needs Religion

Causal inference in ethnographic research: Refining explanations with abductive logic, strength of evidence assessments, and graphical models

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