Mary Douglas

Perri 6 is Professor in Public Management in the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London. Since the 1990s, he has developed the neo-Durkheimian institutional approach from Mary Douglas's work, showing how it explains styles of political judgement and decision-making in government and in organisations generally. Paul Richards was formerly Professor of Anthropology at University College London, and now advises the Directorate of Research at Njala University in Sierra Leone. His numerous publications on the civil wars of the 1990s in West Africa have applied Douglas's theoretical insights to understanding rebellion and violent factional conflict.

"Both authors enjoyed a long acquaintance with Douglas and bring a fresh perspective to her collected work. They demonstrate that, more than most, she had a definite project that defined and shaped her output, even if not every step in that path was necessarily successful or even in a straight line... it is remarkable to trace the unfolding of an intellect and the implications of a theory, and we can hope that more anthropologists will attempt similar exegeses of other greats in the field." - Anthropology Review

• List of FiguresPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroductionChapter 1. Social organization in Microcosm: Anomalies and Ritual Concentrate Conflict    Chapter 2. Comparing on a Grand Scale: Elementary Forms do the OrganizingChapter 3. Building Fundamental Explanations: Rituals do the Institutionalizing, and Institutions Make ChangeChapter 4. Analytic Method is also Ritual Peacemaking: Thinking in Circles Helps to Defuse ConflictChapter 5. Douglas’s Contribution to Understanding Human Thought and ConflictCodaReferencesIndex