Evaluating Culture Well-Being, Institutions and Circumstance [Hardcover]

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.List of Illustrations Note on the Author Acknowledgements Introduction 1. The Case Against Cultural Evaluation: Relativism, Culturalism and Romanticism  2. Needs, Goods and Self-actualization  3. Capabilities, Zero-sum Choices and Equality  4. What is Culture? What does it do? What should it do?  5. Circumstance, Materialism and Possibilism 6. Applying the Theory: Sources of Harm in Aboriginal Australian Communities Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Index

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. Iló“