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Rational Ritual:

Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge
Front Cover
1 Review
Princeton University Press, Jan 6, 2003 - Business & Economics - 144 pages

Why do Internet, financial service, and beer commercials dominate Super Bowl advertising? How do political ceremonies establish authority? Why does repetition characterize anthems and ritual speech? Why were circular forms favored for public festivals during the French Revolution? This book answers these questions using a single concept: common knowledge.

Game theory shows that in order to coordinate its actions, a group of people must form "common knowledge." Each person wants to participate only if others also participate. Members must have knowledge of each other, knowledge of that knowledge, knowledge of the knowledge of that knowledge, and so on. Michael Chwe applies this insight, with striking erudition, to analyze a range of rituals across history and cultures. He shows that public ceremonies are powerful not simply because they transmit meaning from a central source to each audience member but because they let audience members know what other members know. For instance, people watching the Super Bowl know that many others are seeing precisely what they see and that those people know in turn that many others are also watching. This creates common knowledge, and advertisers selling products that depend on consensus are willing to pay large sums to gain access to it. Remarkably, a great variety of rituals and ceremonies, such as formal inaugurations, work in much the same way.

By using a rational-choice argument to explain diverse cultural practices, Chwe argues for a close reciprocal relationship between the perspectives of rationality and culture. He illustrates how game theory can be applied to an unexpectedly broad spectrum of problems, while showing in an admirably clear way what game theory might hold for scholars in the social sciences and humanities who are not yet acquainted with it.

  

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Review: Rational Ritual

User Review  - Virginia Postrel - New York Times

Communal activities, with lots of emotional and symbolic content . . . serve a rational purpose, argues Michael Suk-Young Chwe. . . . [His] work, like his own academic career, bridges several social sciences. Read full review

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Contents

Introduction
3
The Argument
8
Coordination Problems
11
Common Knowledge
13
Where the Argument Comes From
16
Applications
19
How Do Rituals Work?
25
InwardFacing Circles
30
The Chapel in the Panopticon
66
Elaborations
74
Is Common Knowledge an Impossible Ideal?
76
Meaning and Common Knowledge
79
Contesting Common Knowledge
83
Common Knowledge and History
87
Common Knowledge and Group Identity
91
Conclusion
94

On the Waterfront
33
Believe the Hype
37
The Price of Publicity
49
Strong Links and Weak Links
61
The Argument Expressed Diagrammatically
101
References
113
Index
127
Copyright

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References from web pages

Sample Chapter for Chwe, ms-Y.: Rational Ritual: Culture ...
Sample Chapter for Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge by Chwe, MS-Y., published by Princeton University Press.
press.princeton.edu/ chapters/ s7098.html

Rational Ritual -- Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge ...
Search for. Author/Title, Keyword, Title, Author, Publisher, ISBN, Featured Books. in. All Scholarly Subjects, Scholarly & General Subjects ...
www.frontlist.com/ catalog/ detail.htm/ 0691114714

Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. By ...
Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. By Chwe (Michael. Suk-Young). (Princeton, nj: Princeton University Press, 2001. Pp. xiv+130. ...
www.chwe.net/ michael/ heifetz.pdf

Rational ritual : culture, coordination, and common knowledge by ...
All about Rational ritual : culture, coordination, and common knowledge by Michael Suk-Young Chwe. librarything is a cataloging and social networking site ...
www.librarything.com/ work/ 203245

JSTOR: Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge
Michael Chwe's Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge is a welcome addition to a small but growing literature that uses game theory to ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0022-0515(200206)40%3A2%3C577%3ARRCCAC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T

Blackwell Publishing Oxford, UK ECCA Economica 0013-0427 © The ...
... 284 689 691 Book Reviews BOOK REVIEWS Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge Tilman Börgers † † University College London Michael ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/ doi/ xml/ 10.1111/ j.0013-0427.2004.395_1.x

Human Nature and Society November 2001 UCLA-UCSB conference
Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. Say that a group of people face a "coordination problem" in that each person wants to ...
www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ anthro/ bec/ Nov2001_HNS_conference.htm

Each student is required to present and lead the discussion on two ...
Political Science 270. Mechanisms of International Relations. Hein Goemans. Harkness 320. Office Hours: Tue. 1–2. hgoemans@mail.rochester.edu ...
www.rochester.edu/ college/ psc/ syllabi/ goemans/ PSC270.pdf

From Signals to Structured Communication
Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge. 10:40 - 11:10, Coffee. 11:10 - 12:00, Mats Rooth (Cornell University; linguistics) ...
kybele.psych.cornell.edu/ ~edelman/ CogStud/ May2001.html

Game Theory of Psychology, Norms, and Culture
This course was last taught in Fall 2001. Professor Calvert email calvert@artsci.wustl.edu phone x55846 Eliot Hall 328; office hours TBA (avoid MTW ...
calvert.wustl.edu/ PolSci5071.fall01/

About the author (2003)

Chwe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and the Department of Economics, New York University.

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