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The Meanings of Social Life

Jeffrey C. Alexander
Published in print: 2003 Published Online: May Publisher: Oxford University Press
2012 DOI: 10.1093/
ISBN: 9780195160840 eISBN: 9780199944156 acprof:oso/9780195160840.001.0001
Item type: book

This book presents a new approach to how culture works in

contemporary societies. Exposing our everyday myths and narratives in
a series of empirical studies that range from Watergate to the Holocaust,
it shows how these unseen yet potent cultural structures translate into
concrete actions and institutions. Only when these deep patterns of
meaning are revealed, it argues, can we understand the stubborn staying
power of violence and degradation, but also the steady persistence
of hope. By understanding the darker structures that restrict our
imagination, we can seek to transform them. By recognizing the culture
structures that sustain hope, we can allow our idealistic imaginations to
gain more traction in the world.

The meanings of (social) life

Jeffrey C. Alexander

in The Meanings of Social Life: A Cultural Sociology

Published in print: 2003 Published Online: May Publisher: Oxford University Press
2012 DOI: 10.1093/
ISBN: 9780195160840 eISBN: 9780199944156 acprof:oso/9780195160840.003.0010
Item type: chapter

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which

is about social life and cultural sociology. The chapters in this volume
can be considered as adventures in the dialectics of cultural thought as
they move back and forth between theorizing and researching, between
interpretations and explanations, between cultural logics and cultural
pragmatics. This volume presents a new approach for understanding how
culture works in contemporary societies and shows how some unseen
cultural structures translate into concrete actions and institutions.

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How Culture Matters
Cheris Shun-ching Chan

in Marketing Death: Culture and the Making of a Life Insurance Market in China
Published in print: 2012 Published Online: May Publisher: Oxford University Press
2012 DOI: 10.1093/
ISBN: 9780195394078 eISBN: 9780199951154 acprof:oso/9780195394078.003.0006
Item type: chapter

This concluding chapter includes three parts. First, it addresses the

questions raised in the Introduction. It elaborates how, on the one hand,
Chinese concepts of life and death as shared ideas and beliefs produce
public resistance to receiving life insurance as risk management and
how, on the other hand, insurance practitioners mobilize local cultural
symbols and practices to get around this resistance. Moving beyond the
specifics of this case, it proposes a theoretical model that links the two
manifestations of culture, one as a coherent meaning system and the
other as a fragmented tool-kit, to the construction and adoption of a new
economic practice. Second, this chapter includes a comparative analysis
of the life insurance markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan to scrutinize the
extent to which local cultures and agents wield the power to construct
and maintain alternative models of capitalist practices. It maintains that
the presence of competitive domestic players in the field is critical to
strengthening the agency of the indigenous parties. Finally, this chapter
reports on the changes in some insurance firms over the years, discusses
how Chinese clients may change their attitudes toward risk management
insurance, and offers projections about the market’s future development.

The Legacies
Richard English

in Ernie O’Malley: IRA Intellectual

Published in print: 1999 Published Online: Publisher: Oxford University Press
October 2011 DOI: 10.1093/
ISBN: 9780198208075 eISBN: 9780191677908 acprof:oso/9780198208075.003.0005
Item type: chapter

This chapter explores the political, intellectual, and cultural structures

of Ernie O'Malley. These are considered important thematic structures,
but also sensitive to his gradual development. The chapter also explores
his importance to people today and tries to broaden the range of his
importance.

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Postscript
Donald H. Matthews

in Honoring the Ancestors: An African Cultural Interpretation of Black Religion

and Literature
Published in print: 2012 Published Online: Publisher: Oxford University Press
March 2015 DOI: 10.1093/
ISBN: 9780199963997 eISBN: 9780190258412 acprof:osobl/9780199963997.003.0007
Item type: chapter

This book has explored how the creation of the spirituals enabled African
Americans to develop their theological and cultural orientation. It has
argued that the metaphor of the spiritual can serve as an Afrocentric
narrative hermeneutic for black theology and cultural criticism, and thus
should have priority for historical and cultural reasons. It has also shown
how the recognition of African cultural structures has contributed to the
development of black critical theory since the work of seminal black
scholars, particularly W. E. B. DuBois, Melville Herskovits, and Zora Neale
Hurston. The book's central thesis underscores the reality of African
presence in African American cultural life.

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