About this item
Highlights
- From which evaluative base should we develop policies designed to promote wellbeing among different cultural groups in varying circumstances?
- About the Author: Matthew Johnson is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York, UK working in political philosophy on issues of cultural diversity and human wellbeing, specifically with regard to physically invasive practices.
- 204 Pages
- Social Science, Anthropology
Description
About the Book
"From which evaluative foundation should we develop public policies designed to promote wellbeing among different cultural groups in different circumstances? This book seeks to advance an objective, universal theory of cultural evaluation grounded in a eudaemonic account of human wellbeing. The approach brings together a 'thick vague' conception of the good; a determinate, particularist conception of circumstance; an egalitarian moral philosophy with concessions to sufficientarianism, and a normative functionalist view of culture, to assess the value of cultural institutions to those that they affect. Engaging closely with needs and capabilities paradigms, the approach seeks to identify and explain cultural deficits in given circumstances. The applicability of the theory is illustrated through analysis of the effect of settler-indigenous relations on Aboriginal Australian people. This book is ideal for students and scholars of cultural theory and public policy"--Book Synopsis
From which evaluative base should we develop policies designed to promote wellbeing among different cultural groups in varying circumstances? This book engages with needs and capabilities to advance normative functionalist assessment of the success with which cultural institutions promote eudaemonic wellbeing in given, determinate circumstances.Review Quotes
Johnson's book is a challenging and highly controversial defence of cultural evaluation. Its philosophical range is exceptionally wide, while its political engagement is informed and sophisticated. Focusing on the case of Aboriginal Australians, Johnson shows both the need for cultural evaluation and the dangers of intervention. This is a book which will be read with profit by anyone working on the politics of cultural diversity.
Sue Mendus, Department of Politics, University of York, UK
This book is remarkable in its ambition. By suggesting an objective basis on which cultures might be evaluated, it seeks to advocate interventions that prevent serious damage to human well-being. This provocative and insightful argument will stimulate significant debate as we grapple with a rapidly globalising world in which different cultures become increasingly intertwined.
Shane O'Neill, School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast, UK
Evaluating cultures is one of the most complex and controversial tasks of our age. In examining how we should tackle it, Matthew Johnson's ambitious and carefully crafted study provides answers that are unusually bold in content and wide-ranging in scope. His book is essential reading for all who have to grapple with the phenomenon of culture and its significance for human wellbeing.
Peter Jones, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle, UK.
About the Author
Matthew Johnson is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of York, UK working in political philosophy on issues of cultural diversity and human wellbeing, specifically with regard to physically invasive practices. He has written on such topics as contemporary Marxism, circumcision, and the thought of John Gray, and has previously taught at Newcastle University, the University of Queensland and the University of Iceland.
