Culture troubles : politics and the interpretation of meaning

Understanding politics in nations other than your own is a perilous exercise. If you were to read two newspaper articles on the same topic but from different countries, you would likely find two very different interpretations of the same event. But how we think about what is written in our own country seems somehow less distorted, less wrong. So which side is right? And from what reference point can we begin to compare the two? Culture Troubles is a systematic reevaluation of the role of culture in political analysis. Here, Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz contend that it is unwise to compare different societies without taking into account culture, which in their interpretation is not a system of values, but rather a system of inherited meanings and symbols. This cultural approach, they argue, can attribute meaning to political comparison, and they outline the shape of that approach, one that draws from an eclectic range of sources. Illustrating the sharpness and acuity of their methods, they proceed with a comparative study of the state and political representation in three very different nations—France, Nigeria, and Sweden—to untangle the many ways that culture informs our understanding of political events. As a result, Culture Troubles offers a rational starting point from which we may begin to understand foreign politics. Culture Troubles is a systematic reevaluation of the role of culture in political analysis. The authors' three main contentions are that it is unwise to compare different societies without taking into account culture; that a cultural approach contributes meaning to political comparison; and that conceptual frameworks can be based on a theoretically eclectic approach.Chabal and Daloz's argument is one based on an analysis of culture understood as a system of meanings rather than as values. Hence, the authors offer a methodology that grounds political analysis in the interpretation of what makes sense to the people concerned. Their approach, which resists the tyranny of particularisms but instead proposes a different scientific method, draws upon a wide range of political, sociological, and anthropological sources. The authors illustrate the analytical sharpness of this method with a comparative study of the state and political representation in three very different settings: France, Nigeria, and Sweden. CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION: THE POLITICS OF CULTURE Part I. FRAMEWORK 1 CRITIQUE OF GRAND THEORY 2 WORKING ASSUMPTIONS 3 ANALYTICAL FOUNDATIONS Part II. APPROACH 4 CULTURE AND POLITICAL IDENTITY 5 CULTURE AND POLITICAL ORDER 6 CULTURE AND POLITICAL CHANGE Part III. METHOD 7 THINKING INDUCTIVELY 8 THINKING SEMIOTICALLY Part IV. APPLICATION 9 THE MEANINGS OF THE STATE 10 THE GUISES OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION CONCLUSION: IN DEFENCE OF ECLECTICISM BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX A systematic examination and re-evaluation of the role of culture in political analysis. The authors' contentions are that it is unwise to compare different societies without taking into account culture; a cultural approach contributes to making political comparison meaningful; and that conceptual frameworks can be based on an eclectic approach.